MTL - Astartes of the Bear School-Chapter 25 Dangerous Woods

Chapter 25 25. Dangerous woods

 “Why do you think so, Master?”

Mrs. Downer first looked back at Lan En in surprise, and then seemed to understand something, and laughed cheerfully and teasingly again.

"I understand, I understand. Does your expression show guilt?" Donna asked with a smile. "Are you guilty of the demon hunter who killed my husband and is of the same school as you?"

The young man opened his mouth, but Mrs. Donner laughed heartily again before he could speak.

 “Ouch, for the sake of the plague, please don’t make such an expression.”

"Killing people should be punished with life, but the man in my family is an out-and-out drunkard. He is as fierce as a water ghost at ordinary times, and he doesn't work much. To be honest, it might be better to have him in the house without him."

“You want to hear sad stories? I don’t have any here, and it has nothing to do with the drunkard in my family.”

Mrs. Donna's already wrinkled hands waved nonchalantly in the air.

"Oh, yes, is that so?" Lan En's upbringing made him feel that he should not talk about the deceased. Now that the family members said this, he still felt a little embarrassed.

"Haha! Having said that, I really didn't expect that the life of a witcher is so different from that of ordinary farmers like us? Judging from your appearance, you must have been from a decent and wealthy family before you became a witcher, right?"

 After finishing speaking, the cheerful smile on her face faded for the first time, and was replaced by an expression that Lan En couldn't understand.

 It was a calm and gentle expression.

What does that expression mean? Lan En asked in his mind, but Mentos couldn't answer.

“I am being disliked by others, and I am doing more work than a woman’s body can do.” Donna said softly, “But that’s how life is in the village.”

“The village can’t afford to support anyone. To be honest, I’m glad that I can still be disliked by others and still have work to do. I’m also very grateful to the villagers and elders, because”

 “This will at least allow me to raise my children.”

 The tone was soft. In fact, Mrs. Donna didn't have the strength to speak with full force now.

 But these words were like thunder in Lan En’s ears!

 He suddenly felt that Mrs. Donner, this peasant woman who was already showing signs of aging, was beautiful.

This kind of beauty has nothing to do with the abnormally strong hormones of adolescent demon hunters. It is a kind of lofty beauty that faces the cruelty of life, accepts the challenge gladly, and is determined to fight to the end.

 Lan En feels that he will remember this beauty for the rest of his life.

   ~~~~~~

The tear in the cotton armor cover is indeed not big, just very scattered. Just as Lan En expected, with Mrs. Downer's craftsmanship, it was completed in less than twenty minutes.

Stepping out of the room, Lan En was walking on the boardwalk with his eyes lowered.

“Actually, there are a lot of things wrong with what she said, right?”

 The communication in his head began, and so far Lan En had only one person in the world to whom he could confide his feelings.

"Yes, sir." Maybe it was an illusion, Lan En felt that Mentos's voice was softer than usual at this time.

“There was a vicious alcoholic husband, but there was no trace of violence in the family. On the day her husband was killed, her feet were still stained with cow dung and soil from the farmland, but she said that her husband was lazy and did not work, which is very suspicious.”

 But the purpose is very simple—

 She didn’t want Lan to be burdened with guilt that didn’t belong to him.

Even if she spoke ill of her husband to Lan En in private, she didn't want the young man to live with guilt.

　　　He is a very good person.

 And it was for this kind of person that he returned to Oriden.

With high spirits, Lan En returned to the blacksmith shop without stopping. Just in time, Ivan was sharpening the newly plated silver on the stone wheel.

 In less than two minutes, the young man had two long swords on his back again.

It was noon, Lan En took Bernie and set sail.

 Both of them were carrying a sandwich consisting of bread, salted fish and pickles for lunch.

 “I always feel that you are very motivated today?”

Bernie at the stern of the boat was biting into a salted fish sandwich and steering the helm, looking at Lan En in slight surprise.

Lan Enze, who was sitting in the bow of the boat, had already finished his lunch in three or two bites and was currently checking the buckles on his armor and boots one by one.

"I still need a lot of water ghosts to practice, Bernie. We can go west today, and if we are lucky, we may even encounter a water ghost nest."

 “You are the boss, I have no problem with it.”

 Bernie shrugged nonchalantly.

 After last night's drinking, he now doesn't care much about the little catch he loses every day.

 Perhaps it was Lane's energy that rubbed off on Bernie, as his boat trip was very fast today.

 Not long after walking along the shore of Fike Lake, they reached their first tracking point.

 It is very different from the muddy tidal flats of yesterday. The terrain along the coast here is dense woods.

 The trees are so thick that their roots are almost exposed on the river bank. Lan En made a "tsk" sound of unknown meaning.

The woods are a bit limiting as a combat environment, but at the same time, Bernie is bound to demonstrate novel tracking knowledge in the woods. This makes Lan En feel a little bit love-hate.

“The number of fish here is also pretty good.” Bernie said as he steered the boat to slow down.

“Go ashore and walk northwest for a while, and you’ll find Midcops. There’s also a famous local blacksmith there. Maybe you’ll be interested?”

 “Forget it.” Lan En’s expression was flat.

Ivan’s craftsmanship has revealed the level of craftsmanship in the land of Velen.

 A well-known local blacksmith is probably at the same level as Ivan, which is still far from the master level.

Bernie shrugged, brushed the crumbs off his hands, put his long leather gloves back on and strapped them on.

With a "crash" sound, the two jumped out of the boat and walked towards the woods on the river bank.

 Bernie consciously walked in front and was responsible for following the traces.

“I said Lan En, will the water ghost still build a nest in the woods?”

  He is a hunter, but he has no understanding of monster habits, so he has this question.

Although Lan En "took the initiative" to start teaching before the instructor finished teaching, he had been taught at least.

He slowly pulled out the Bear School silver sword with a "clunk" sound, without taking the usual posture of holding the hilt of the sword to the side of his face.

 Instead, hold the sword hilt with both hands hanging down naturally, with the sword tip facing back, and the entire sword body kept to the right side.

 Every time you move, put your center of gravity on your toes, and your steps should be light and steady.

 This is not a state of active attack, but a posture for quick reaction.

“Water ghosts are amphibious creatures, and their only requirement for nesting is ‘by the water’. Whether it’s a tidal flat, a forest, or even a farmland, it doesn’t matter to them.”

“Then these beasts are really tenacious.”

 “Who says it’s not?”

 The two of them chatted all the time, mainly to relieve tension in this dense forest.

The woods of Velen are full of dangers. Wild dogs, wolves, and brown bears are just ordinary animals, but more dangerous monsters also like to lurk in them.

Coupled with the good sound-absorbing ability of leaves and wood, once a person enters the woods for about thirty meters, even his death screams will not be heard outside the woods.

 Just imagine, only thirty meters away, a few seconds on flat ground.

 You are being eaten by monsters, but passersby outside can’t even hear you.

 So the Willen people are accustomed to calling the woods "green swamps".

The two were still moving forward. According to Bernie, "because they were in the woods, the scales and footprints of the water ghost were more abrupt and easy to identify."

 But when the two of them really got close to the group of water ghosts, the woods still frightened them.

Bernie should have let them face the group of water ghosts directly, and then slowly approached after confirming the situation.

 But after losing the clues several times and finding them again, they did see the water ghost.

It’s just that when they saw it, the water ghost was less than ten meters away from the two of them!

　　It’s almost attached to the side!

 Fortunately, Bernie is an old hunter, and his movements in the woods are light and quiet, so he was not taken away by the water ghost.

Lan and Bernie looked at each other, and Bernie was already so scared that his lips trembled.

From this distance, it is impossible to see the situation of the water ghost group, but it is completely unrealistic for the two of them to move their positions.

Fighting a battle without intelligence is a taboo for witchers.

Reality is not a game, monsters are not distributed according to levels, and a witcher will face death if he makes the slightest mistake.

 An ordinary witcher would probably declare his career to be over if he encountered the current situation.

 Lan En doesn’t have a useful “apprentice” to help him avoid thunder.

 “Tsk.” But in this case, the young man just smacked his tongue slightly.

 With his current [Trace Detection] proficiency of 13%, if he had been able to find and fill in the gaps for Bernie, he would not have reached this stage.

 But on the way just now, his main focus was on warning of dangers and observing Bernie's skills.

“Nothing can be done about Mentos!” Lan En narrowed his eyes and looked at the water ghost beside him who was chewing something unknown.

 “At your service, sir.”

  “Enable the auxiliary function of the seal.”

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 (End of this chapter)