Chapter 178: Running in the Night but Blocked by a Wall ※Nanamis POV (1/2)

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The alarm rang and I woke up.

The sky had a beautiful expansive starry sky that stole breaths.

“Hnn~, sleeping at a hard place makes my body hurt…” (Nanami)

I stretch while absentminded.

My condition is good. Compared to that hellish training, you could even say this is too easy.

Now that I look well, Ai-chan had its big mouth open and snoring, with its tongue hanging out.

It is in the dead of the night, but the brilliant moonlight was illuminating the ground and made the vision good.

“Fufufufufu! So cute…!” (Nanami)

I opened the Status Board and chose the camera mode.

When I did so, a small handy camera-like thing appeared that I can use to take pictures with.

“Here, this is the Evil Eyeball, Ai-chan~. It ate several big monsters whole at noon, and is currently sound asleep~.” (Nanami)

I move all around with my camera, taking pictures everywhere of Ai-chan.

Long eyelashes, big mouth, splendid fangs, and its tongue is meaty and long like the tongue of a bear.

Its ears are like tentacles, so it looks like it doesn’t have hands to hold things. It is most likely because it just has to shoot a beam from afar to kill other creatures and eat them whole.

I don’t know how it breeds. I don’t even know if there are other Evil Eyeballs in this region. This child has become a Monstrosity so, at the very least, I don’t think there are any in the vicinity.

I stop the camera mode, and look at the darkness to get my eyes used to it.

Even with just the moonlight, I can see decently.

It would be even better if I had a pocket flashlight, but it would be better to rely on nature rather than a half-baked light source.

I originally had bad eyesight and relied on glasses, so being able to see clearly without glasses, and being able to see this well even when it is night is moving in itself.

I even feel like it would be okay to put points in Eyesight Up. Being able to see truly is great.

I used Crystals to buy water and a sandwich.

It is not like I am that hungry, but the advice of Celica-chan was to maintain perfect condition as much as possible.

I can somehow manage without eating or drinking for a day.

But those small factors can decide if you live or die. I finally got some leeway in Points, so there’s no need to be adventurous on that side.

I wake up Ai-chan and throw a big eagle Spirit Stone into its mouth.

Its half-asleep look as it sucked on the stone was so silly it was cute. If I told it that I felt it was going to bite me in its absentminded state, would it get angry?

—I won’t eat you.

“Right. Sorry. Are you fine with that much?” (Nanami)

—Yup.

“Alright! Then, let’s go. We will be running till noon from here on.” (Nanami)

—Got it.

I stood up and, after confirming the map once, I began running.

Ai-chan follows behind by floating. It seems like it can’t bring much speed. Its highest speed is probably not that different from when I am running.

Even if the moon is out, it is not like I can clearly see faraway.

I don’t know what kind of dangerous creatures there are in the surroundings.

Putting it in an extreme way, there’s even the chance that a similar one from Ai-chan could use a beam attack on us.

“Well, there’s danger no matter when I run.” (Nanami)

It is currently 2 o’clock.

It seems like the temperature has decreased quite a lot, and I even feel cold.

Oh well, I probably will soon stop being bothered about it after I run for a bit more.

If I put the potions to full use, I might be able to run a whole 40km without any breaks.

I don’t know how long this danger zone goes on for, but I doubt it is right until the doorstep of the village. Ai-chan is with me, so it might unexpectedly go well.

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“Running at night was the right choice.” (Nanami)

—Everyone is sleeping.

I have run a distance that, if it had been my past self, I would have long given up.

I couldn’t see it but, according to Ai-chan, there were several big lizards like the one before slightly further away, but just as the hint said, they were not active and didn’t show interest in us.

Well, there’s the possibility that they didn’t go through the trouble of coming at us because Ai-chan is here though.

Anyways, Ai-chan’s eye is good.

Being almost all eye is not just for show.

There’s the option of fighting and defeating them, but this is not a situation where I can't choose the risk.

For now, I ignored them and decided to prioritize securing safety.

It is a relief that the temperature didn’t drop drastically at night and it was easy to run.

It would have been pretty rough simply from being too cold or too hot after all. Well, I knew that the Ringpill Continent isn’t that rough of an environment even pretty far north.

Even the worry that’s the appetite of Ai-chan, it doesn’t seem like it had as bad of a fuel consumption as I thought. It apparently doesn’t have any problems as long as it eats as much as 1 of that bird once a day. Ai-chan says that it can keep up for 1 day with a corpse that had its Spirit Stone removed, so it isn’t that terrible.

…I do feel like it would be pretty rough even with that once we get out from a settlement though.

After running for 3 hours, I notice that the sky is growing lighter.

“Ai-chan, is there a big mountain at the front?” (Nanami)

—There is.

It answered straight on.

What’s there is there. For animals, the natural environment is nothing more, nothing less, I guess.

But that’s troubling for me.

I tried running in this direction because the settlement is there, but I didn’t expect I would have to cross a mountain.

“Status, open.” (Nanami)

I confirmed the map again.

There’s around 60km until the settlement now.

It is not that big of a distance if I count the Barrier Stones and the remaining Points, but that mountain is certainly something I need to cross.

I look at the mountain towering from afar.

It would be more accurate to call it a mountain range. No, from the looks of it, I would rather call it a rising cliff.