GILF Hunter

Chapter 477: 477 First Day

The entire expedition party walked together along the rope.

Since it wasn’t a very distant place, they arrived at their destination before long.

They stood before an object called a [Thorn Bush].

’It’s over there.’

’We found a pretty big one right from the start....’

Ariel, arriving in front of it, said as she examined the thorn bush.

It was a bush as tall as a person, bristling with sharp thorns. It was so densely packed that nothing inside could be seen at all.

This large bush, nestled between the trees, looked incredibly suspicious at first glance.

When they first discovered it, Frenda and the members seeing it for the first time were naturally on guard, thinking a monster might be hiding inside.

The members gathered one by one in front of the bush.

Rin, feeling doubtful as she watched, approached Ian’s side and whispered.

A large thorn bush in the middle of the forest. It looked unique, but she couldn’t guess at all why they had gone out of their way to return here.

’Leader. What on earth is this that we came back for?’

’It’s for the materials.’

’It doesn’t look like it’s in particularly good condition.... Isn’t it just a withered bush?’

’The bush itself doesn’t have any effects; the materials are inside.’

Ian pointed toward the bottom of the bush.

Rin turned her gaze to where Ian pointed and closely examined the base of the bush.

Between the clumped thorn bushes, there was a small hole just barely large enough to slide a hand through.

Looking at it, Rin asked with a look of disbelief.

’Eh? You mean inside there?’

Ian nodded.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[Mysterious Thorn Bush]

- Take HP damage when searching, 5% chance to find an item.

- Upon search failure, the damage taken and the find probability for the next search increase.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Inside a bush that looked like it would definitely sting with its thorns, and where one couldn’t even tell what was inside.

Rin spoke to Ian again with a look of total reluctance.

’Ugh.... Are you saying we have to stick our hands in there and pull something out?’

’That’s right. It’s one of the most common things here, but something quite good might come out.’

’...Can’t we just cut the bush?’

It was a natural question to have, but Ian shook his head.

’It’s incredibly tough, so it’s not easy and takes a long time. Besides, doing that isn’t a very good idea. If you damage the plants in the forest recklessly... a Witch might appear.’

’A Witch? Come to think of it, you did mention that a Witch actually appears here.’

Rin glanced around at the nearby scenery.

Withered undergrowth and dead trees. Eerie fog. Based on the landscape alone, it certainly looked like a place worthy of the name ’Witch’s Forest.’

When she first heard it, she thought it was named that because of the scenery, but it wasn’t named simply because of its appearance.

’Will a Witch really appear?’

’It’s a bit hard to meet one on purpose, but they aren’t non-existent.’

Ian nodded.

Of course, cutting a little grass didn’t make a Witch appear immediately.

When encountering objects like these [Thorn Bushes], there were roughly three choices.

Ignore and pass by.

Sacrifice HP to obtain an item.

Destroy the bush to obtain an item.

Naturally, the option to destroy the bush and take the item without any damage was the most efficient, but in exchange, this choice had a penalty where the probability of encountering a Witch gradually increased.

If they went around destroying objects, the likelihood of a Witch being hostile when encountered also increased, so it wasn’t a good choice if they wanted to explore for a long time.

In the meantime, the Ranger Circle decided on the turn order. One of the members stepped forward confidently.

’Alright... I’ll pull it out in one go! No one has succeeded at that this year, right?’

’Probably not?’

The member who stepped forward first reached his hand into the thorn bush.

’Ummm... ow, hot!’

Contrary to his confident attitude, the member immediately got stung by a thorn.

After that, he began to carefully grope the inside of the bush with a more serious expression.

’Ah... ugh, kack...’

’Stop it and come out now.’

’Wait a second. It’s really about time it came out. Just one last time...’

’If you collapse, I’m leaving you behind.’

The member who tried to rummage through the bush a bit more was caught by Ariel’s hand and dragged out.

It was only after several people had swapped turns that they were finally able to find something inside the bush.

’It’s here!’

The person whose turn was third grabbed something inside the bush and carefully pulled it outside.

It was an object that looked like a tree branch.

’Oh!’

’Is that it by any chance?’

’That is probably...’

Tanya and Mika, standing near Ian, saw it and asked him. The circle members said they were looking for [Thunderstruck Branches], and at a glance, that seemed to be the item.

However, the member who actually pulled out the item had a disappointed expression.

- [Fire-scorched Branch]

A material item that looked almost identical to a [Thunderstruck Branch]. It was a dud for the archers.

’That was close. Let’s rest a bit and move to the next one.’

Ariel said that and gave the members a short rest period.

’Whew.... After all that effort to succeed.’

’Too bad. It was almost the same.’

The members whose HP had been consumed from searching the object were gathered in a corner.

Frenda, glancing over at them, approached the injured and spoke.

’Those who are hurt, please come this way for a moment.’

’Eh? N... no way.’

Toward the flustered members, a small light blossomed from Frenda’s hand.

None of them had very deep wounds. The puncture wounds were treated in an instant by Frenda’s healing magic.

’W... will your mana be okay?’

’Yes. Isn’t this a place you all used to frequent even without a priest anyway? I don’t think there’s a need to save it just in case.’

Rather than being happy, the treated members asked with expressions as if they were afraid of something.

’Then, that... the treatment fee...?’

’It’s fine, as I can just bill Leader Ian later.’

’....’

Everyone’s gaze flocked toward Ian.

’Don’t worry, I won’t ask you guys to split the bill. She’s a guest who came with me anyway.’

’Thank you!’

’With this, we can do twice as much searching.’

’If there’s [Shadow Flame], we’ll definitely bring it back!’

Only after Ian said he wouldn’t ask the circle to split the bill did everyone’s expressions relax.

A treatment fee billed by a high priestess.

It was a story that would make anyone’s face stiffen with a chill.

Frenda had joined arbitrarily, but since it was true she was being helpful, he could just use Temple points if necessary.

Thinking that, Ian glanced back at Frenda.

Frenda, who looked at Ian at almost the same time, met Ian’s eyes and gave a small smile of unknown meaning.

＊ ＊ ＊

After finishing the light exploration.

The expedition, having checked the objects nearby, scattered again around the camp to search the area before returning.

They checked a few more things like [Small Stone Towers] and [Bird Nests], but no one obtained the target item.

It was only the first day, so it couldn’t be helped.

Ian spread out a map inside the tent.

It was a map recording what had been discovered in which direction, centered around the camp.

It was made by gathering the brief verbal reports from the members who had scattered to explore the area.

Ian hadn’t measured it accurately by going himself, but since they could measure the distance by the length of the unspooled rope, it was a map with quite high accuracy for something made temporarily.

The members all poked their heads in from the side to look at Ian’s map.

’We only circled near the camp, but there’s so much new stuff discovered.’

’That’s true. Tomorrow we’ll spend the whole day just visiting these.’

’Are we all going together tomorrow too?’

’Unless something special happens, probably.’

Tanya asked Ian with a puzzled face. To Tanya, going around all together seemed like a somewhat inefficient route.

’With this many, wouldn’t it be better to just scatter and find them individually? I heard the monsters aren’t dangerous. It’ll take forever if we visit them one by one together.’

’Isn’t it because they’re afraid someone might pocket the materials?’

’Is that so?’

Hearing Mika’s guess, Tanya wore a look that suggested it sounded plausible.

However, Ian shook his head as if that wasn’t the only reason and told them.

’That might be one reason, but... I heard that if Leader Ariel doesn’t supervise personally, people keep trying to search things like the thorn bushes excessively.’

’...Ah.’

Even with the [Thorn Bush] earlier, if Ariel hadn’t set a limit and forced them to swap, they probably would have kept challenging it until their limit. Because they would have thought it would come out next time.

Most of the objects in this Witch’s Forest were set up that way.

Objects that lure one to challenge unfair odds with the bait of a big reward.

If you don’t weigh the profit and loss coldly, you’ll fall into the swamp of opportunity cost and the gambler’s fallacy, losing all your resources in an instant.

If someone like Ariel didn’t exercise control from the side, it was highly likely everyone would leave without having gained anything.

’We’ll have to move around a lot tomorrow, so let’s sleep now.’

’Yes.’

Ian said that and turned down the lamp’s flame to its lowest setting.