Volume 2 Chapter 2 The Magic Forest and the Roughnecks
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
It was my second day in this other world.
I’d just run into a zombie in the middle of the woods.
Even after I’d used Ice Bullets¹ to blow off its head and limbs, the thing kept twitching.
Zombies were nothing if not persistent, but once I crushed its heart, it finally stopped moving.
(If I get bitten, do I turn into one of them?)
I’d seen that trope a thousand times in movies.
As I stared at the motionless corpse, I finally steeled my resolve to survive in this world where it was kill or be killed.
* * *
I pulled myself together and started walking again.
It had probably been about two or three hours since daybreak.
I kept my Item Box² deployed as a shield in front of me, advancing while staying alert.
I made sure to leave regular markers high up on the trees so I wouldn’t lose my way.
I thought as I walked.
I’ve finally run into monsters.
Zombies.
What kind of logic makes a corpse move?
Is this forest crawling with them?
Or are there things like goblins here, too?
There might be creatures nearby that I can’t possibly handle.
(No, stay sharp. My focus is slipping.)
I forced my attention back to the perimeter and moved forward with caution.
* * *
After another two or three hours of trekking, the scenery finally shifted.
The forest broke off about fifty meters ahead.
I ducked into the shadows of the trees to scout the clearing.
Sunlight poured into the gap in the canopy.
Looking up, the sun was nearly directly overhead.
Then I heard it-the sound of running water.
A river.
It looked to be about ten meters wide.
On the far bank, the forest started up again.
So, a river cutting through the woods.
I wondered if it flowed down from the mountain range I’d seen yesterday.
The current ran from right to left.
If I followed it downstream, I might find a settlement.
Alright. I’ll follow the water.
* * *
I began walking downstream, sticking to the tree line rather than the bank.
Walking out in the open was a death wish.
If there was an enemy out there, I wanted to see them first.
”Eeeaaagh…”
A faint sound drifted from the distance-a scream.
I pressed my back against a tree and strained my ears.
”Aaaagh…”
There it was again. A human? A child’s voice?
They were definitely shouting something.
The scream came twice more, then went dead silent.
What the hell was that?
Maybe it was a local.
Either way, I had to get closer and assess the situation.
I stayed low, creeping toward the source of the sound.
I kept the Item Box shield hovering just above my head.
* * *
–There!
I hid in the shadows and peeked out.
A human figure was standing about fifty meters away.
He was holding a sword and scanning the area.
I could only see one of them from here, but I bet there were others hidden from view.
I began to circle around to the left to close the gap.
I moved stealthily, getting behind them.
I managed to get within thirty meters.
From this range, I could tell for sure: the figure was a man.
(A human! There are actually living people here!)
I felt a surge of genuine joy.
Whatever else happened, I was just glad to know humans existed in this world.
I crept closer.
Just a bit more. Another five meters.
Once I was within twenty meters, the full picture became clear.
* * *
The man was wielding a one-handed sword.
Behind him was a small clearing.
Two other men were there, crouching on the ground.
One of them was straddling something, his hips thrusting rhythmically.
R*pe.
That voice from earlier-it must have been a woman’s scream.
I couldn’t see the woman herself from this angle.
Three of them in total.
One guy playing lookout while the other two took turns on the girl.
The men were silent.
The woman wasn’t making a sound anymore, either.
The only thing I could hear was the heavy, ragged breathing of the men.
(I’m not going to try and save her.)
She was a stranger, plain and simple.
If I played the hero and messed up, I’d be the one who ended up dead.
I was an interloper in this world-someone who wasn’t even supposed to be here.
If that woman died here, then that was just the hand she was dealt.
The swordsman hadn’t let his guard down yet.
I stayed perfectly still in the brush, waiting for an opening.
* * *
After a while, they moved.
The two crouching men stood up.
The swordsman approached them.
The three of them stood in a circle, looking down at the woman and talking.
(–All three have their backs to me. Now!)
Suddenly, a fire erupted right where they were looking.
It roared to life instantly, as if they’d doused the spot in oil.
(Those pieces of shit. They raped her and then set her on fire? Yeah. These are the kind of people it’s okay to kill. No need to hold back.)
I felt my murderous intent solidify into a cold, hard lump.
* * *
I stood up, pushing my Item Box shield out in front of me.
I’d already pre-cast an Ice Bullet by my right shoulder.
Target the one with the weapon first.
I aimed for the back of the swordsman’s head and fired without a word.
With a wet CRACK, his head turned into a spray of red mist.
”Whoa!?”
”Gyaaa!”
The headless swordsman toppled backward.
The guy to his left shrieked and dropped to the ground.
He’d been sprayed with bits of skull and brain from point-blank range.
The third man, wearing a hat, just stood there frozen.
He couldn’t even process what had happened.
I didn’t give him the chance. I fired the next round immediately.
”Ice Bullet!”
”Igeee!”
The man in the hat was slammed backward as his right shoulder exploded.
His severed arm went spinning through the air like a discarded toy.
* * *
I started walking toward them, keeping another bullet floating in wait.
As I reached the clearing, I saw exactly what was burning.
It was a naked woman, her hands bound behind her back, engulfed in fierce flames.
She didn’t twitch or scream. She must have been dead before they lit the fire.
I turned to the survivors.
The man in the hat was curled on the ground, clutching the bloody stump of his shoulder and shaking.
The other guy-the one who’d taken the face-full of gore-scrambled to his feet.
He pulled a sword and screamed at me.
”What the hell are you doing! You bastard!”
”Ice Bullet!”
I didn’t hesitate. I drove a bullet straight into his gut.
The ice projectile punched a hole through his solar plexus and whistled out his back.
”Glargh…”
He coughed up a lungful of blood as the hole opened up in his midsection.
He slumped to his knees and faceplanted into the dirt.
* * *
This one would be dead in seconds.
He was useless to me.
Might as well finish the job.
I walked over and overlapped my Item Box Storage³ function with his head.
I reaped it.
Just like that, I had another headless corpse.
Blood pulsed out of the raw cut of the neck in steady, rhythmic throbs.
(So the heart keeps beating for a bit even without the head. Good to know.)
”Hey, you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
I spoke to the man in the hat.
He was still clutching his shoulder, shivering as he shrieked.
”Help me! Don’t kill me! Please!”
”Answer the question. Do you understand my words?”
”Ah? Yes! Yes, I understand! Just please!”
”Oh! So we can communicate!”
For some reason, the language barrier didn’t exist.
I understood him perfectly, and he understood me.
I needed to bleed him for information.
I kept the Ice Bullet hovering right in front of his face as I spoke.
”Listen close. You’re going to answer everything I ask honestly. If you don’t… well, you know what happens, right?”
”I-I get it… I’ll talk. I’ll tell you anything!”
”Good. First, what were you people doing?”
”We just… we snatched this woman and were having some fun, that’s all!”
”Why kill her? Did she do something to you?”
”No… it wasn’t like that…”
(So they killed her for no reason at all?)
It didn’t make any sense. Whatever.
”Next. Where are we?”
”Where? It’s the Forest of Magic!”
So, “The Forest of Magic.”
I guess that explains all the monsters.
”Is there a village or a town nearby?”
”If you get out of here… and follow the river downstream, you’ll hit Grimm.”
”Is Grimm a town? And are there more of your friends around?”
”Please, help m–“
”Hey. Answer the question.”
”…Ah–“
His eyes started to wander.
His consciousness was fading fast.
He’d lost his arm at the shoulder and was spraying blood from the artery.
This guy was a goner too.
Perfect.
He was still alive, for now.
Time for an experiment.
”Heal!⁴“
I cast Heal on the man in the hat.
The wound on his shoulder closed up right before my eyes.
”Whoa, that’s incredible! A wound that bad and it’s gone in a second.”
The raw meat turned back into smooth skin.
But it didn’t look like a new arm was going to sprout out of the stump.
The bleeding had stopped, but the man was still barely conscious.
I guess Heal doesn’t replace the blood he already lost.
I picked up one of their discarded swords.
I raised it high and brought it down hard on the man’s remaining left arm.
Thud.
The blade didn’t cut through.
The edge got stuck right in the bone of his forearm.
(This thing is dull as a butter knife. Plus, it’s hard to get any leverage with a one-handed sword.)
The man didn’t even flinch.
He probably couldn’t feel pain anymore.
This time, I aimed for the wrist joint and swung with everything I had.
It came off cleanly that time.
I picked up the severed left hand and pressed the cut ends back together.
”Heal!”
The surfaces fused instantly.
I couldn’t tell if he could still move it since he was out cold, but the logic held.
(You can’t grow what’s gone, but you can stick things back on.)
That was enough.
I didn’t want to hang around.
For all I knew, more of their buddies were on the way.
I placed the Item Box over the hat-man’s face and triggered Storage.
His body went limp as his head vanished.
I moved fast, gathering their gear and tossing it into the Box.
Three swords, one dagger, and their belts.
I also needed local clothes.
The first guy I killed didn’t have much blood on his outfit.
I stripped him buck-naked and Stored the clothes.
I took the boots off the other two and Stored those as well.
Leaving the bodies here would just cause trouble.
I used the Item Box to vacuum up the men from head to toe.
I even dug out the bloody dirt beneath them.
(Alright. Humans can be Stored, too.)
I Stored the other two and erased every trace of the struggle.
The woman was a charred husk now.
I hadn’t done anything to her.
I’d just made sure the animals who r*ped and murdered her disappeared from the face of the earth.
(That was the first time I’ve killed a living person.)
My heart was thumping against my ribs like a trapped bird.
I decided to get the hell out of there.
* * *
I thought as I walked.
I currently had a giant snake, three dead men, and all their gear inside the Box.
I don’t know how it works, but the Item Box seems to have massive capacity.
The guy in the hat said if I follow the river downstream, I’d find Grimm.
I assumed that was the name of a village or town.
But I wasn’t stupid enough to head straight for the riverbank.
He could have been trying to lead me right into an ambush.
Their friends might be waiting by the water.
Keeping a sharp eye on my surroundings, I continued through the deep woods, heading downstream but staying well away from the shore.
Every few steps, I made sure to look behind me.
(I suddenly dived into the bushes, holding my breath as I scanned the area. There’s no sign of anyone tailing me. It looks like those three I finished off back there were the whole group.)
I finally put enough distance between us to slump against a nearby tree and catch my breath.
I’ve been walking since sunrise, but my body doesn’t actually feel that tired.
Ever since I dropped into this world, I’ve been in surprisingly good shape.
Two days of this hell and my gut has already started to shrink.
But mentally, I’m trashed.
The second that string of tension loosens, the exhaustion hits me all at once.
Just forty-eight hours ago, I was hunched over a keyboard at a desk job.
Now, I’m suddenly being forced into kill-or-be-killed matches in the middle of a forest. It’s a lot to take in.
(If this is a dream, I really need to wake the hell up…)
Anyway, I’m starving. I pull the spoils of war out of my Item Box⁵ and start rummaging through them.
I try opening the drawstring bag the men had. Inside, there’s some kind of beef-jerky-style dried meat and a leather canteen.
But God, it reeks. The bag, the jerky, the canteen—everything is fucking pungent. It’s got that distinct, sour stench of the homeless guys you see around Shinjuku.
(What is wrong with these people? Do they just never wash?)
The idea of putting this near my mouth makes my skin crawl. But this is the only food I’ve managed to scavenge. I can’t afford to be picky.
It’s got to be better than trying to roast a snake, right?
(…Right?)
Whatever.
I use Magic⁶ to conjure some water and give the jerky a thorough, aggressive scrubbing.
Pinching my nose shut, I shove a piece into my mouth. I can’t tell what kind of animal it came from, but it’s wretched. Bland, too.
(Just get it down. It’s fuel. That’s all it is.)
I keep at it, breathing through my mouth and forcing myself to chew and swallow, treating the meal like a mechanical chore.
I loosen the strap on the leather canteen and crack it open. A faint hint of wine drifts out. But it’s overwhelmed by that same sour, unwashed-man funk.
Besides, now isn’t the time to be getting drunk. Phew. Anyway, my stomach is full.
(Please, just don’t give me food poisoning.)
I toss the bag and the canteen back into the Item Box. As I sit there letting the meal settle, my mind drifted back to the scene from earlier. Those things back there… they were human.
When I first spotted them, the three men were r*ping a woman. Or rather, since she was already dead by the time I saw them, it was necrophilia. All three were armed with swords.
In this world, those are the kinds of people I’m up against. If I let myself get rattled by scum like that, I won’t last a day.
(I have to get used to being just as ruthless as they are.)
The men were dark-skinned. I couldn’t tell with the first one since I blew his head off, but the other two were swarthy. It wasn’t a Japanese person’s tan; they looked more like Indonesians or Brazilians.
One was about my height, the other a bit taller. Just average builds. The woman had been burned, so it was hard to tell, but her skin looked pale.
She was thin—no breasts to speak of. I wonder if this world is a melting pot of different races. I wonder if there are people here who look like me.
But to r*pe a woman and then murder her… I’ve been dropped into a truly ugly world. Snuffing out a life for a moment of cheap lust.
(…Then again, Earth is the same. Japan is just a peaceful bubble.)
Once I’ve finally calmed down, I pull some clothes out of the Item Box. My modern “Business Casual” look was a neon sign saying “I don’t belong here.” I need to look like a local.
The clothes belonged to the guy with the one-handed sword. A set of ochre-colored rags. A thigh-length tunic, trousers, and a belt. He hadn’t been wearing any underwear.
The belt had a leather pouch attached, and the sword’s scabbard could be rigged right onto the belt too.
The pouch held a few coins. At least it looks like they have a currency system here.
I had the purses from all three of them, so I was hoping it added up to something decent.
I figured I’d change into these and strap on the gear.
From a distance, I might actually pass for a local.
But the smell… God, the smell is unbearable.
Everything is too stinking.
(Are their noses broken?)
I lean in to sniff the trousers.
”Ugh! Jesus!”
That sour, homeless stench hit me like a physical blow. There’s a faint, lingering note of piss and shit in there, too. Honestly, the filthiness makes me hesitant even to touch it.
My hands feel greasy just from holding the fabric.
(How do you even live like this? Seriously, screw those guys.)
There is no way I can wear these as-is. I’ve got sensitive skin, for God’s sake. I summon more Magic water and start washing them—over and over.
I scrub the clothes, the drawstring bag, the wallet, and the belt until my hands are raw. I’d kill for some laundry detergent, but I have to make do. They feel cleaner to the touch, but I can’t fully kill the scent. Still, it’s a massive improvement.
It’s already late.
I’ll hang the clothes on a branch to dry while I catch some sleep.
I climb up into the canopy, just like the night before.
I lash myself to a sturdy branch to make sure I don’t fall and set up my Item Box as a shield below me.
It works as a barricade and a blind to keep anything on the ground from spotting me.
I stare into the dark, thinking about tomorrow.
I want to keep everything in the Item Box, but I can’t.
Walking around with nothing would make people suspicious.
And walking around unarmed would make me a target.
My goal for now: pass as a local and disappear into the crowd.
My power… it might not be normal, even here.
Those three didn’t use any Magic. Physically, they seemed just like humans on Earth.
(Is there such a thing as “Swordsmanship Skills” in this world?)
If they had any special tricks, they probably would have used them before they died. Either way, showing my hand is a bad move.
I’m a stranger in a strange land. I need to keep my Abilities a secret until I know the rules.
(I just hope this “Grimm” place isn’t the type to kill outsiders on sight.)
With that thought drifting through my mind, my second day in this other world comes to a close.
—
Summary:
Moving downstream along the river, the protagonist discovers a group of bandits committing a horrific crime. He executes three roughnecks using Ice Bullets and spatial decapitation via the Item Box. After a cold experiment with the Heal spell on the final survivor, he cleans the scene and vanishes into the woods
Moving from the site of a brutal encounter, the protagonist retreats into the forest to process the horror of necrophilia and sexual violence he witnessed. He struggles with the literal and figurative stench of the world while consuming foul-smelling rations. Clad in looted clothes, he prepares for an uncertain arrival at a place called Grimm
—
Trivia:
- The protagonist’s tactical use of the Item Box as a physical shield.
- The visual of the river flowing from a mountain range.
- The specific detail about blood pulsing from a headless neck indicating heart function.
- The narrator notes his stomach has already flattened in two days
- The stolen clothes did not include underwear
- The narrator specifically mentions having sensitive skin as a reason for washing the filthy clothes
- The Item Box is used physically as a shield/blind while sleeping in the tree
—
Character Insight:
The protagonist demonstrates a shift from relief at finding humans to a clinical, murderous pragmatism, viewing the bandits as ‘expendable’ and ‘experimental subjects.’
The protagonist is intentionally hardening his heart, adopting a ‘roughneck’ persona to survive, yet still displays modern sensibilities like disgust at poor hygiene and a desire for laundry detergent.
—
Glossary:
Notes:
• Grimm – The name of a large settlement and community located near the Forest of Magic. Grimm is a walled city featuring a bustling marketplace and diverse population, though it suffers from severe lack of sanitation and a legalized slave trade.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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