I'll take care of it then.

　Nodding briefly at my words, Etan-san walked noiselessly toward the lake, bow in hand.
　Little by little, he lowered his body and carefully closed the distance to his prey.

　The moment he reached the grass that covered the shore of the lake, the figure of the hunter disappeared.
　The back of the hunter's body, which had looked normal earlier, became completely unrecognizable in the underbrush.
　It's a wonderful way to remove any sign of him.

　In the game, there was an evasion correction for tree races in forests and grassy masses, but now that I've seen it in real life, I can understand why they hide themselves so well.

　Looking at the surface of the lake with admiration, I see giant sword-tailed dragonflies flitting about at whim.
　Their large eyeballs were pointing here and there at random, and any careless movement would be immediately detected.

　As I watched with bated breath, an arrow suddenly shot noiselessly from between the grasses.
　The position and timing were completely unexpected.

　The arrow drew a gentle parabola and gracefully streaked between the darting dragonflies.
　Then it pierced one of them in the back.

　Recognizing that it had been attacked, the demon rapidly turned its body toward the shore.
　But the other dragonflies, though they shake their wings and fly around, do not change their movements significantly.

　The dragonfly, which has compound eyes, has a field of vision of 360 degrees.
　However, perhaps the wings on its back were in the way, and only the area behind it was a blind spot.
　In other words, Mr. Etan's arrow was a brilliant shot that captured the moment when several dragonflies turned their backs on one of their prey.

　The dragonfly with the arrow in its neck left the surface of the lake and headed straight for the shore.
　However, the target was not the person who had fired the arrow, but us, who were watching from a distance.

　He didn't seem to notice Mr. Etan, the one who was hiding in the grass.
　He was hiding very well.

　The effect of the Demon Repellent is only effective if you do nothing.
　It will not work against a demon that is enraged by an attack.
　We waited for the sword-tailed dragonfly to come straight at us, and called out to each other.

"All right, here it comes. Are you ready?
"Yes, I'm ready, sir.
"Aww, I'm ready to shoot!
Okkago!
Aah!

　It was Paula, whip in hand, who stepped forward to intercept him.
　Her body twisted smoothly, and her black tail arced around the approaching sword-tailed dragonfly.
　.

　As if she had hit an invisible wall, the demon suddenly stopped moving in midair.
　Then, without pause, Paula's magic spurted out.
　--
　The sword-tailed dragonfly clacked its jaws and shook its wings in defiance of the power being poured into it.
　Mia and I hold our breaths and watch.
　Yoru and Kuu are cheering for Paula with their hands on their hips, waving their hips in the air.
　It's cute, but it's ruining the tension.



　The demon hunter and the sword-tailed dragonfly stared at each other for a while.
　But the moment the whip struck the demon's face, the game was easily decided.
　The dragonfly hangs its head and falls to the ground with its wings spread.

　Exhaling quietly, Paula slowly approached and pulled out the arrow that was still stuck in the demon's back.
　The dragonfly's wings whistled happily.
　Yeah, he's totally in love with you.

"Wow!　You did it, Miss Pau!
Way to go!
Yeah!
Now we can finally move on. ....... Thank you so much for everything.
"Thank you for the compliment.

　Paula's face lit up as she picked up the two animals that had rushed to her.
　And behind her, too, a shout of praise.

"That was brilliant. Mr. Paula.

　It was Mr. Etan who had returned before I knew it.
　Paula, who had easily taken on the dragonfly, was amazing, but Etan, who had lured out the only prey, was amazing enough.

Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Etan. Now let's move on.

　We left the lakeside and headed downstream to the west side of the lake.
　The river was only four or five meters wide, and there were no dragonflies flying about.

　In addition, there were plenty of suitable trees growing along the riverbank.

Hmm, how about this tree?
"Yes, it looks like it will reach us well.

　Mr. Etan, who knew a lot about trees, and I examined and found about ten trees.
　Now it was time for the sword-tailed dragonfly that had just joined us.

Would you mind stepping back a bit?
"All right!　Ken-chan, hang in there!
"Shouchi!
"Ku!

　I don't know if Mia and the others got the message, but Ken-chan the dragonfly soared a little higher into the sky, and then, while swooping down, he slammed the sword in his belly into the trunk of a tree with great force.
　A tremendous sound rang out, and the demon's abdomen dug deeply into the bark.

"Whoa!　Isn't that amazing?
If it were us, it would definitely cut the body in half. ......
"Ken-non!
"Koo!

　When I turned my attention back to the dragonfly, it was about to slash the tree again as I held the furball and feather in my arms.


　Another loud crash sounded, and this time the tree, which should have been quite thick, shook violently.
　The third slash finally brought the sturdy trunk to its knees.

　We all shouted in unison at the sight of the tree falling with a muffled sound.

　When we quickly approached and touched it, the branches and leaves fell to the ground and the trunk disappeared.
　I breathed a sigh of relief as the log appeared in the list of items as expected.

　If it was still growing from the ground, it couldn't be stored, but if it was cut down, it could be safely collected as wood.
　I wondered if it was not possible to collect live trees, but it seemed that there was a classification that I didn't understand, since fruits and mushrooms on branches could be collected as they were.
　Later, after we had collected our target of ten logs, we chose a place where the river was relatively narrow.

　We reached out to the riverbank and pulled out a log at the target location.
　After making sure it was firmly placed on the other side of the river, we placed another log next to it.
　Mr. Etan then tied the logs together tightly with vines.

　This process was repeated three times.
　A magnificent log bridge spanning three tributaries was completed.

"Well, finally, .......
"Now we can finally go across the river.
"Yeah, yeah, let's go for it!　But we've got to keep our heads on straight!
Yes, you're right, Mia.

　It's been eight days since we arrived at this level.
　We finally set foot in the northern area.
　But within five minutes, we had to turn back in a hurry.

　The main reason for this was the work of a giant swarm of bees.