I Became a 6★ Gacha Character-Chapter 530: Kanpf’s Great Leap Forward 5

Han Se-ah fidgeted awkwardly with the pouch dangling at her waist. Since the "Pure Natural Energy" quest reward and Minthe's "leaf" couldn't be placed in her inventory, she kept touching the pouch that held them instead.

...I'd missed my chance to nag her, but seeing how she'd put a passive item that warded off evil energy in her inventory without even equipping it made me want to flick her forehead.

With those thoughts, we walked through the now-darkened deep forest, where Grace gazed in one direction with her subtly glowing eyes. Come to think of it, after our experience with the witch's sorcery, those strangely sparkling eyes were something I should look into.

Her once ordinary brown eyes had become amber, beautifully mixed with yellow, and now literally sparkled like those of a great cat. I wondered if she was about to reach 6★ like Irene, or if she was learning a new skill.

"So are there only forest fairies in this forest?"

"There are probably monsters too. They mentioned they couldn't leave the village, which suggests they're wary of things besides humans."

"Makes sense. This is the 61st floor after all—it can't be an empty forest."

The number 61 was too intimidating to completely relax, yet the silent forest made it difficult to stay tense continuously.

As we moved forward with the now-familiar rustling sounds, Grace stopped us with her sparkling eyes. Betraying Katie's expectant face—probably hoping for more forest fairies—she slowly raised her bow and drew the string.

Creeeeeak—

Gathering a wind arrow that we'd now become completely familiar with, she fired what looked almost like a javelin toward some target. Though not as massive as the siege weapon that had crashed into the witch's hut, it was far more powerful than an ordinary arrow.

"What is that?"

"A ch-chameleon?"

The thick wind arrow shattered branches before embedding itself in a massive tree sturdy enough to withstand a javelin-sized projectile. The impact sent leaves showering down and the trunk shaking violently, but the tree wasn't the important part.

A flat head that had been staring at us while hanging upside down from the tree—the back of a giant chameleon monster that could swallow a human's upper body in one gulp had been shattered, causing it to drop down from the tree.

How would medieval people with no internet know about exotic animals like chameleons? When confusion filled everyone's faces, Han Se-ah, who had muttered this without thinking, quickly offered an explanation while being teased by viewers.

"Chameleon, Hanna?"

"Oh, well, it's a lizard that camouflages by making its skin match its surroundings."

Ah, so this is a chameleon.

A color-changing lizard.

The viewers snickered, as if generic Japanese light novels existed in the other world too. Come to think of it, I hadn't seen any chameleon-type monsters despite traveling to all four corners of the Kingdom.

Still, our party members accepted her explanation without much doubt, thanks to "Genius Mage Whatever" Han Se-ah. It probably helped that she frequented the Magic Tower and interacted with old wizards. Anyway, the creature wriggled while impaled on the wind arrow, and when the arrow disappeared, its punctured body turned into a mana stone and dropped to the ground.

The mana stone was large enough to be visible even in the dim forest. Though it looked like a chameleon variant and seemed harmless, the size of the mana stone suggested it had been quite powerful.

"Hmm... a lizard that big is unsettling."

"How would it attack? By swinging its tail like a whip?"

"It would shoot out its tongue, like a frog."

"A color-changing lizard-frog? What will they think of next?"

After collecting the mana stone, we continued forward with Katie grumbling. Apparently the main theme of this dark forest was stealth and ambush, as most monsters we encountered afterward were similar to the chameleon.

Following the giant chameleon that could swallow a person's upper body in one bite, we encountered a large spotted snake that looked like a moss-covered vine, and monkey monsters with dark brown bark-like skin.

The most annoying were naturally the monkeys. Looking like an unpleasant mix of monkey and orangutan, with bark and moss instead of fur, they proved their simian nature by traveling in groups.

They usually dozed off curled up high in large trees, but when our party passed underneath, crunching fallen leaves, they threw stones at us.

"Watch your heads!"

"Ah, damn it! What kind of monkey—!"

Naturally, stones thrown by 61st-floor monkeys weren't ordinary. The forest fairies' forest was like some magical realm where creatures naturally manipulated mana.

Stones flew with the force of arrows shot from mechanical crossbows, giving me no chance to lower my shield. The only fortunate aspect was that their hard shell-like skin made their movements sluggish. While I took a battering of stones with my shield raised, our only viable strategy was to break branches and knock them down.

CLANG— THUD—!

The pointed stones hammered my shield with shocking force for projectiles thrown by monkeys less than a meter tall. While forest fairies were one thing, an attack from these monkeys would turn a mid-rank party into minced meat.

As expected of the 61st floor—truly only those of high-rank caliber could survive here. If the 51st floor plains could be managed by mid-rank parties with sufficient numbers (except for ogres), the 61st would only produce meaningless sacrifices.

※

"No discoveries yet?"

"There are some safe zones created by forest fairies, but no villages yet."

"Maybe there's just one village per floor, like the stone dwarves' city?"

"The stone dwarves had a city while forest fairies have villages, so let's keep looking before jumping to conclusions."

And so began days of forest exploration.

Obviously, adventurers couldn't just climb the Tower one floor per day when attempting to reach the top. They had to find safe zones, hunt monsters, sell mana stones, and analyze ecosystems for wizards and scholars.

Additionally, with crowds rushing in hoping to meet forest fairies firsthand, the forest was quite bustling despite the restriction to high-rank adventurers and above.

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It wasn't like the old days when we'd awkwardly pass other adventurer groups while heading in any cardinal direction, but we frequently found safe zones already occupied. Come to think of it, even in this medieval fantasy world, the formula "fairy = beautiful" seemed to hold true.

"What was our current task again?"

"Collecting dark red moss growing from tree roots, and finding vine specimens that look identical to snakes."

"We've already packed the moss in the inventory, so we just need to keep an eye out for those vines."

"Honestly though, I can't tell the difference between normal vines and the ones we're looking for."

While we were the only ones who could find the forest fairy villages with our leaf emblem, other high-rank adventurer parties could discover the path to the 62nd floor.

With the mindset that we only needed to avoid losing the final blow on the boss, we continued exploring to find potential forest fairy villages on the 61st floor. Since there was no reason we had to be the ones to find the 62nd floor gate, our party debated whether moss-covered vines resembled snakes or not.

The atmosphere remained light since we could easily handle chameleons and snakes—only the monkeys throwing stones from above posed any real challenge.

"There's a safe zone ahead. Should we call it a day?"

"It's an awkward time to push forward anyway. If the safe zone is empty, let's rest there."

With minimal danger, good earnings, and steady progress, there was no reason for the mood to sour. Laughing together, we followed Grace to a large tree house.

The trunk section had swelled like a jar, forming a safe zone large enough to comfortably accommodate five people. Hadn't someone mentioned that places where several of these gathered naturally became forest fairy villages?

It felt exactly like a studio apartment—too small for all five of us to cook inside, but spacious enough for us to sleep side by side.

Just in case, Grace took the leaf emblem from Han Se-ah and circled the safe zone once, while Katie and I laid out sleeping bags and hung lanterns inside. Meanwhile, Han Se-ah and Irene prepared dinner outside.

"Irene! Sister! Sisteeer-!"

"My goodness! What's wrong, child?!"

Just as we were satisfyingly settling into our well-coordinated roles for rest, Grace's sudden cry reached us.

She'd gone out for light reconnaissance but returned carrying someone who was half-dead—what on earth had happened?

Enjoy the chappy!