“Class B also has someone missing… ”
Hearing my report, Bertus nodded slowly.
“It would be a bit unreasonable to say that one person from each class suddenly wandered into the jungle and got lost at the same time.”
In the end, Bertus decided that it was only right to look for those other people on the island.
“Our side is also a mess, but I didn’t think that we’d actually had it better…”
Bertus couldn’t hide his laughter when I told him that Class B’s camp was completely ruined. Although we had suffered, we had it a lot better.
“Okay. So someone attacked us, and we have to catch that person whether we like it or not. Maybe that’s the specific condition the teachers mentioned. That being what it is, we still have to gather food to keep going.”
The first objective was searching for the culprits, and the second was to find food. It was already hard enough to do just one, but suddenly I had to work on both tasks at the same time.
“Reinhardt, Cliffman, Ellen, Grantz, and I are probably the only ones who are able to fight properly in an emergency situation…”
Harriet’s magic required casting time, and Adelia didn’t learn any attack spells. In Heinrich’s case, he wasn’t ready yet to attack with his ability. In Kono Lint’s and Erich’s cases, they weren’t on a level where they could fight properly either.
So there were actually only five people who had actual combat abilities; we also had no way of reliably knowing what kind of opponent we’d be facing.
“Among us, Ellen is the only one that can act alone, right?”
“Probably.”
“Okay, fortunately, we have Heinrich, who can light fires even during this rain, so it won’t be difficult to cook whatever we catch. If we don’t find anything, we will have to eat coconuts."
Bertus went towards the camp.
“Okay! Although it might be a bit hard because it’s raining, please come out, everyone!” he shouted loudly.
Everyone started crawling out of their huts like beggars at Bertus’s call.
Cayer had disappeared, so there were only 10 people left. Everyone was wet from the rain and—after the storm had hit us—none of us could sleep anymore, so everyone looked extremely tired.
***
Bertus explained to them what we talked about step by step.
Cayer Vioden was missing. There was also someone missing from Class B’s side.
It looked like the two of them had been kidnapped by the other inhabitants of the island, who might hunt us every night or target those who entered the jungle alone.
We had to find and subdue them before any more of us got caught by the inhabitants. Otherwise, we’d get completely destroyed, and both our classes would fail the mission.
“From this point on, Reinhardt, Ellen, Grantz, Cliffman, and I will be divided into three groups to search through and hunt in the jungle. Those remaining should organize the camp and repair the damaged huts. And, if you could, make some rainwater collectors; make as many as possible so that we can secure enough drinking water, but don’t go too deep into the jungle. I don’t know what might happen.”
After instructing the remaining people on what to do, Bertus gathered the ones that were selected to go into the jungle.
"Ellen, I think you should go in alone. Are you okay with that? If you think it’s dangerous, you can move with others as a three-person team.”
“I’ll go alone."
Ellen took a shortbow, some arrows, and a knife. That was enough.
"Okay, Cliffman, you’ll go with me."
“Yes.”
"Grantz, you’ll move with Reinhardt."
“Okay.”
Like that, we managed to organize three groups.
“Don’t just try to subdue the inhabitants as you come across them. Please try to first check what type of people they are, if possible, then come back. We’ll make a plan together then. For now, our top priority is securing food.”
Everyone nodded at Bertus’s words.
“Let’s go in.”
-Shaaaaaaaaa!
Accompanied by the heavy rain, we entered the jungle.
***
Liana was a bit different from the other Class A students who entered the jungle.
She was a supernatural power user. Of course, I was also one, but my talent was actually closer to a combat talent.
“Huff… Huff…”
That was why Liana had much less stamina than the other guys, and she was really suffering from the drop in her body temperature due to the rain. The sphere Harriet attached to her had also disappeared, so she was struggling to move through the rain.
“…Should we go back?”
“No, just keep going.”
This girl was completely exhausted, but she still walked ahead with her eyes squinted, seeming as if she didn’t want to be a burden. I could feel that my stamina had increased tremendously, but I also noticed that this girl had incredibly little stamina.
Of course, in a combat situation, her Electrokinesis would be much more useful than my abilities.
After walking for a while, we had no other choice but to stop.
“We can’t go on like this. Get some rest."
“Huff… Huff…”
As if she had no more energy left to speak, she just sat down and leaned her back against a tree. Her lips turned blue, and her body temperature seemed to have dropped drastically.
“Is your condition worse? I think we should go back now.”
Liana struggled to raise her hand instead of giving me a response.
“Give me that."
“That? Erm, Ah… You mean this?”
“Yeah, that.”
Liana grabbed the machete I held in my hand and suddenly began to focus her strength in her eyes.
-Crackle!
Raindrops began to evaporate as soon as they touched the machete. It seemed like she was heating it up by applying electricity to it; she let it cool down slightly using the rain and then hugged it like a hot pack. It looked like she already knew how to attach her power to things.
“I want to burn it all down."
Liana was muttering nervously—it seemed like she didn’t like roaming through the jungle in such conditions. Of course, who the hell would?
After doing that for some time, Liana’s complexion turned back to normal. She then handed the machete back to me.
“You do it too.”
The machete was heated to a somewhat hot level.
“Uh, Uhm… Okay.”
The more time I spent with her, the more she seemed like a kind weirdo—rather than just kind.
***
Due to Liana having a low level of stamina, our progress was a lot slower compared to the other teams—we had to take a lot of breaks. She would hug the machete hot pack to recover her body temperature; then we’d move forward again.
“But what if we get lost while we’re searching around? No, aren’t we actually already lost?”
The rain was very heavy, so Liana seemed to have already lost her sense of direction. I pointed to the sky.
“We can climb up a tree to check.”
“Ah.”
It would be enough to just climb up on a tree, and then we could figure out our approximate location. Like that, we could find our way if we ever got lost. If one still didn’t know where one was, one just had to look towards the ocean to find the direction of the closest beach and go around to our camp. As if she was satisfied with that answer, Liana just hugged the machete like a doll.
“But how are we even supposed to find any animals to hunt in this heavy rain…” Liana grumbled, then her eyes suddenly became wide.
“…Isn’t that one?"
As I looked towards the place Liana was pointing at, I could see a roe deer drinking rainwater from a puddle.
I made a shushing gesture, to which Liana nodded with a firm expression on her face.
It hadn’t noticed us yet.
* * *
Reaper Scans
Translator – KonnoAren
Proofreader – ilafy
* * *
The distance between us and it was about 15 meters, which was too far for Liana’s ability to reach. I had a javelin, but I wasn’t familiar with using them. Even with the support of my supernatural power, could I even graze it?
‘Let’s get close to it slowly.'
Liana silently nodded her head when she heard my words. Fortunately, the deer didn’t notice the sound of our footsteps because of the heavy rain.
After slowly moving five meters closer to it, we were able to reduce the gap to about 10 meters. At this distance, I thought I’d be able to hit it well enough.
But if I can’t kill it in a single blow, it would just run away.
What should I do?
I only had one javelin, only one chance. I took it out and showed it to Liana.
Was this possible?
-Can you leave electric energy in there?
A while ago, I found out that it was possible for her to attach electric energy to metallic objects, but was she able to make electric energy remain in an object? Under normal circumstances, that would be impossible, but she already knew how to attach her ability to objects.
To put it simply, I wanted her to put an electric enchantment on my weapon.
-Uhm, I think I can do that.
Liana concentrated and began to attach her electric energy to my javelin’s tip.
And.
-Brzzzt!
“Ugrrrrr!”
“Oh, right.”
Of course, Liana and I both forgot that if she were to let electric currents run through a rain-soaked javelin, my hand would also get electrocuted while holding it.
***
Fortunately, I didn’t die.
However, the roe deer naturally ran away, surprised by my loud scream after I got electrocuted.
Ditzy and stupid.
Both of us just stood there in the rain staring blankly into the distance, ashamed at how we stupidly lost that deer.
“Hey, even if I asked you to do that, you’re electrokinetic. Shouldn’t you have known what would happen?”
Liana glared at me with her eyes wide open.
“And you won first place with such an empty head.”
“Did you just call my head empty?”
“Be glad that I didn’t call you stone-headed. Oh, but it would have been better if your head was made of stone, then you wouldn’t have gotten electrocuted. You’re an electricity conducting empty head.”
She was way different from Harriet.
She was not one to lose in a fight of words; even beyond that, she didn’t get affected at all and even dealt out quite a bit. If I argued with her anymore, I think we might have ended up at each other’s throats, so I decided to be more lenient.
“…Fine, I lost. Let’s stop this.”
“Okay.”
Hunting using Electrokinesis? It seemed like we wanted to die of a heart attack.
Anyway, both of us got overly excited about finding prey that we couldn’t think clearly. Thinking back, even I thought that asking for a Lightning enchantment on a rainy day made me seem just as bad as Ludwig.
The same goes for lashing out at the kid whom I asked to do it.
“Sigh. Let’s look for it."
“I think it already ran away.”
We resumed walking in the direction the roe fled to. The ground was muddy because of the continued heavy rainfall, so there weren’t a lot of traces to follow. Neither of us had any tracking talents nor any other related skills. Just because I watched Law of the Jungle or Bear Grylls videos a few times didn’t mean I perfectly knew how to track animals.
We had no other choice but to walk around randomly.
“It couldn’t have gone far…”
“Shh. ”
Fortunately, the roe deer didn’t run that far. After walking around for about 10 minutes, I could see some grass shaking in the distance.
-Rustle!
The bushes were shaking quite unnaturally. I wasn’t sure if it was the roe deer or something else, but there definitely was something over there. Liana and I slowly approached the place while keeping completely silent. I prepared my javelin so that I could react at any time.
-Groooowl!
Then we heard a clear, low-pitched growl that made our muscles stiffen.
It was an animal.
What we were able to see when we got closer was a jaguar that had hunted down the roe deer we were chasing, giving us a warning growl.
“!”
When Liana saw the beast, she froze up.
I wasn’t much different, though. Just looking at that beast—which wasn’t even an actual monster or something—I felt my whole body growing weak.
What was with this? Crazy.
This didn’t come up in the original novel.
I mean, they did exist in the original, but they shouldn’t be found here.
I grabbed the stiffened Liana’s arm and slowly backed away from it.
The jaguar that spotted us would run after us at full speed if we were to get even a little closer. I didn’t know if I was able to react to the speed and agility of a wild cat-like predator.
Liana looked at me and tried to call out to me by only moving her mouth without letting out a sound.
-Why is something like this here?!
-Because it is.
Questioning how there could be a mission like this out there, Liana seemed to be on the verge of delirium while I was trying to calmly lead her to back up.
It caught its prey, so it probably wouldn’t try to chase after us.
We had two options.
-Let’s choose whether we drive it away, kill it to take away its prey, or retreat as is.
-Is that even something we had to consider?
It seemed like Liana was swearing me out just with her eyes. Her eyes seemed to ask me if I had gone mad.
-It’s possible to chase it away with the javelin like before, using electricity.
-…Is your head really made out of stone? Did you forget that you got electrocuted last time?
It seemed like Liana was now actually worried if my brain had some serious defects or not.
-I’m not throwing it, but you are.
Of course, I didn’t forget that I got shocked before when trying to throw an electricity-enchanted javelin.
However, I wasn’t the only one able to throw it—that girl was immune to electricity after all…
-Me? You want me to throw the javelin and hit that thing? You think that’ll work?
-Who told you that you have to hit it?
I pointed towards the bush the beast was in.
-There’s a puddle over there. You just have to throw it in there.
Because of the rain falling, the puddle was almost overflowing, and the place where the jaguar caught the deer was clearly in the water.
It was only then that Liana seemed to understand what I was going on about.
-What if it dodges? Won’t it attack us?
-If that thing comes at us, I’ll do something about it.
-What do you mean ‘you’ll do something’?
-Anyway, you’ll be able to do it well, so just do it.
My physical abilities might not have been on par with a wild beast, but if it was a jaguar rushing straight at us, it would come into Liana’s range. Rather, if I were to aggro it and kite it for a while, Liana could attack it with her electric shock.
This mission wasn’t supposed to be life-threatening, but we were able to do whatever we wanted.
Liana seemed worried, but she eventually grabbed the javelin…
After I got further away to avoid getting electrocuted, Liana threw the javelin with all her might with an unsure look on her face.
And.
-Pak!
“…Ah.”
“…How does this even happen?”
It was a fairly large puddle; however, the javelin was horizontally embedded in a tree in the area.
She had not only missed it completely, it seemed like she had aimed at a completely different place.
-Snaaarl!
The jaguar sensed our intent and ran towards us.
“Wha-what should we do!”
“What do you mean what should we do?!”
I picked up my machete and aimed at the rushing jaguar. The speed of the beast’s charge was unbelievably fast. So fast one couldn’t even follow it with one’s naked eyes.
If I tried to stab it, it would just evade it—so I grabbed the blade of the machete and held it horizontally.
It was the half-swording style Ellen had occasionally shown me.
Rather than attacking it, it would be better to block it; my purpose wasn’t to kill it but to stop its charge.
“Just shoot at it!”
Self-suggestion.
I didn’t use it to enhance my physical strength that time.
I told myself that my body had become an insulator!
-Kakang!
Just as the jaguar bit into my horizontally held machete, ice blue sparks flew around Liana’s eyes.
-Snaaarl!
“Uurrg!”
I felt a throbbing pain run through my body as if the electric current was forcing my muscles to continuously relax and contract.
The jaguar that pounced at me staggered. I didn’t miss that chance.
I forced my stunned body to move and rushed towards the jaguar.
-Crack!
I slammed the machete right into its head. Rather than the sensation of cutting something, the sensation of crushing something got transmitted to my hands.
“Gasp… Gasp…”
The battle didn’t even last 5 seconds.
However, Liana sure could activate her ability quickly.
If we both weren’t able to activate our abilities so fast, the situation would have ended very differently.
“Are… Are you okay?”
“Phew…”
I looked at Liana and grinned.
“Sometimes, you just gotta get electrocuted a bit to get rid of all the parasites on your body.”
“Wha… What are you even saying?”
Hearing my ridiculous bullshit, Liana was genuinely worried that I had lost my mind after getting electrocuted twice in a row.
Damn.
I was amazed that I was able to react properly when that beast had rushed towards me.
Had I made a mistake, I would have gotten eliminated.
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