Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu Chapter 32
Defense Specialization and Exploring the Valley
「Well then, we’ll start with the eggs, shall we?」
Sally said as she sat down in the crevice in the rock wall and took the eggs out of her inventory.
「Won’t these disappear if they aren’t stored?」
Maple asked Sally.
Equipment, potions and other items disappeared if you took them out of your inventory and left them for two hours.
「Who knows? …Let’s put them away once before two hours are up, just in case.」
They would probably never be able to get their hands on these eggs again, so they couldn’t afford to lose them.
「Sure, let’s do that.」
「Now, how do you warm it up?」
「Hmm… with your skin, I guess?」
Maple unequipped her armor and great shield and gently lifted the dark green egg into her embrace.
「What do you think will be born?」
She patted the surface of the egg with a smile, as if she couldn’t wait for it to hatch.
Sally did the same as Maple and warmed the egg.
「What’s important is love! Love!」
「Well, that’s for sure.」
The two each patted their eggs and made plans for the future exploration.
「Let’s look around along the river first. Then we can come back to our base.」
The fog was so thick that they couldn’t even see what was in front of them, and without any landmarks, they were sure to get lost.
In a field where there were so many opportunities for surprise attacks, if they lost a place where they could rest, they would eventually lose their concentration and actually take an attack.
Although these attacks would not be a big deal to Maple, that was not the case for Sally.
Sally, with her low HP, could be downed by a single hit.
It took her a lot of concentration to evade attacks.
The fatigue from that was immeasurable.
「O-okay! Along the river it is.」
They warmed the eggs for the next hour or so, but in the end, they didn’t hatch this time.
The two put the eggs away into their inventories and decided to go exploring.
「Alright! Let’s go and find medals!」
「Mhm!」
They began their search in high spirits and walked upstream.
As Sally had said:
「I think these things often have stuff where they start to flow.」
Maple agreed that it was definitely possible. Because she thought that if she were to set something up, it would be in a place that had some significance.
The beginning or end point of something was just right for it.
「I can’t wait to see what’s there.」
「Just be aware that it’s not like something is there for sure, okay?」
「Yup! I understand.」
As they were heading upstream, the terrain gradually began to become more and more rocky and difficult to walk on.
「Ma-aple! Use 【Cover Move】 and come u-up!」
「Got it! 【Cover Move】!」
With Sally leading the way and Maple using 【Cover Move】, Maple was able to get over any elevations that were difficult for her to climb.
It took them an hour to advance like that.
Perhaps because the base was already located upstream, the two were able to reach it earlier than they had expected.
At that place was a crystal clear spring about three meters in diameter.
Its beautiful circular shape made the spring seem mysterious to the two at first.
The thick fog was also one of the elements that created the mysterious atmosphere.
「It seems rather… deep.」
Sally looked into the spring and muttered to herself.
The spring wasn’t very wide, but it seemed to be decently deep.
「Do you want to try and dive in?」
「I think it’s worth a try. I don’t think many players have 【Diving】 and 【Swimming】, so… there might be some things they missed when they came here.」
Unfortunately, Maple couldn’t dive, so she decided to stay and wait for Sally’s return.
「Take care!」
「Yep, I’m off!」
Sally entered the spring and dove in right away.
She pushed on deeper and deeper into the quiet waters where no light could reach.
And after 10 minutes of swimming. She found a tattered treasure chest sunken at the bottom of the spring.
Wary of traps, Sally carefully opened the treasure chest.
What was inside was a silver staff. Its tip was fitted with a red and blue gemstone.
After finishing the final check to make sure there were no medals or other items, Sally surfaced.
「Huff! Ha, ho!」
Sally emerged from the spring with a splash.
「How did it go?」
「Fail. Only thing inside was a staff.」
「Uh… I see… how strong is it?」
「Wait a moment… It only has 【Water Magic Strengthening】 and 【Fire Magic Strengthening】.」
「We don’t need it for now.」
「Well, yeah. What should we do? Do you still want to explore somewhere else?」
「Mmm… well, let’s go back to the base and see what’s nearby.」
「Let’s go with that then. It’s such a big valley, it would make sense for something else to be in it.」
The two carefully made their way to the base.
On the way, they explored both sides of the river enough not to lose sight of it, but in the end, they couldn’t find anything.
And while doing so, they returned to the location of the crevice where they had made their base.
「What do we do now? I suppose we could try heading downstream, but… it would be a bit of a challenge.」
「Well… then how about we just focus on hatching the eggs today?」
Sally seemed to be quite a bit fatigued from always being totally on guard in the thick fog and from searching with 【Diving】, so she accepted Maple’s suggestion.
「Egg, egg and… there it is.」
「Ht, ta!」
They both pulled their eggs out of their inventories and patted them in their embrace.
「Ahhhh… it’s so smooth and nice to touch…」
Sally murmured as she leaned against the rock face.
The feel of fine porcelain made Maple want to pet it forever.
「It just wouldn’t ha-atch…」
「Well, it’s not like it’s going to hatch that quickly, is it?」
For three hours, they repeatedly put the eggs in their inventories, took them out and warmed them up.
The two patted their eggs as they chatted.
「What do you think will be born?」
「Mine is purple and Maple’s is green… hmmm… I guess some herbivore will be born from Maple’s, right? Like a deer.」
「A deer… from an egg?」
「Since it’s a monster, why not? I have no idea what’s gonna be born.」
As Sally said, in a game world, anything could be born from an egg, depending on how it was configured.
「Then I hope it’s something cute…」
Maple thought of all sorts of animals, lots of cute creatures coming to her mind. She could think of just as many not-so-cute creatures, though.
In particular, she wanted to avoid some insects.
「I wonder what will be born from mine?」
Sally’s egg was purple.
Maple imagined the creature that might be born from the egg.
「Purple, purple …hmm? …poison dragon?」
「Uhh… I’d rather not.」
If a poison dragon were to be born, and they started to fight each other, it was certain that the area around Sally would be flooded with a sea of poison.
In that case, Sally would be stuck in a situation where she would be unable to move.
「Poison dragon… poison dragon, huh… I’d prefer something a bit more peaceful if possible.」
The two thought about what could be inside the eggs.
They warmed the eggs lovingly as they rambled on about what was good and what they wouldn’t want.
Despite what they said, they both thought that whatever monster was born, they would be kind to it.
Did their feelings come through?
The eggs of the two cracked.
「「Eep!?」」
「W-w-w-w-what do we do!?」
「P-p-p-put it on the ground for now!」
They put the eggs on the solid ground and lay down to look at them.
And finally, the eggs cracked open.
Two monster critters appeared from inside.
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