The next morning I woke up in a terrible state.
My back hurts and my limbs are so numb that I can't even feel them, but the worst thing is that I'm now hanging on a rope that doesn't have much time left before it snaps.
"...fuck"
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I somehow managed to get down safely, but that was close.
"I should get to some human settlement before I injure myself beyond recovery..."
Though, it's easier said than done, when I don't know where the heck I am.
"For the time being, I'll collect the fruit that's left there and follow this river."
In short, I need to prepare, the knife I got from goblin is in the belt that I made from the rope.
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"Ok then, now that everything is done I'll get going, the future awaits me!"
On the way I found some dubious looking grass, I tasted them and the results were Interesting.
The yellow flower that had some reddish berries under Its crown gave me a headache.
The strawberry-like thing that was blue made me nauseated.
The leaves that had red and green shades made my body all scratchy.
There are many more of these, like the one that made my vision blurry and distorted or the one that destroyed my sense of balance, there were also the ones that completely paralysed me or the ones that made my body swell up upon a touch.
To be simple, it was hell, when my vision was blurry I tripped many times with face first, the same goes for the destroyed sense of balance, seriously I thought I was some kind of wisp floating around.
But actually there was one good thing, I found the herb that looked liked clover with four leaves, but it was bigger and thicker, I found this after my body became all scratchy and when I put it in my mouth the scratchiness disappeared soon after, does this make it a healing herb? I guess so, Not caring about this I gathered as much as I could and secured them on my belt... together with poisonous grass, yep I also gathered them, which one? well, all of what I mentioned above, who knows maybe they'll come in handy.
"Well, even if they don't, there's no harm in bringing them with me."
The lack of talking partner made it look like I'm crazy, not that anyone is looking.
As I was thinking about these things I saw one particularly interesting looking flower, its colours were very vibrant and had a very strong fragrance.
From my experience, I had the feeling that it's not going to end well if I go anywhere near that thing, but it smells so good that I can't pass by it without savouring its scent.
As I crouched down and brought my nose closer to the flower, it sprayed some yellowish powder in my face
"Gahh~!!! Son of the bitc―cough cough!"
Before I could even finish cursing I began to cough uncontrollably.
And then everything changed, the trees became yellow and the ground turned blue, it was like someone took a magnet and slid it across a TV screen.
In the end it was just an illusion, but no one would be able to walk normally after seeing it for a couple of minutes, though instead of moving Einhard was standing still with closed eyes and when he opened it his pupils were several times bigger than its original size, which means that, right now, he's high.
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Somewhere in the forest...
"Are we safe now, boss?"
They were a group of several worn out people
"Geh―how should I know?! But we seem to have lost him. Oi! We're going to camp here!"
Said the muscular man, who seemed to be the leader.
From the exchange just now, it's obvious that they were running away from someone, though the leader wanted to get out of the forest as soon as possible, but without replenishing their strength first, they wouldn't last long.
As for camping, there was nothing too complicated, they made a campfire and a pot with earth magic.
After gathering ingredients and putting them on fire they heard a noise from the nearby bush.
"! Everyone get ready for the attack!"
At the leaders yell everyone grabbed their weapons and got in stance.
The atmosphere was extremely tense, if you listened carefully you could even hear their heartbeat.
They braced themselves and waited for worse to come. because after that person finds them it would be over...
But on contrary to their expectations, instead of certain death, what came out was just a little boy with black hair, no rather than coming out it would be better to say that he rolled out, it was, without the doubt, Einhard.
"Um... boss, it's not that guy."(man A)
"I can see that myself! More importantly, what should we do with him?"(leader)
"maybe sell him?"(man B)
"but it's too suspicious, what's a boy this little doing in this damned forest, look he even has a knife, he might be some monster pretending to be human for all I care"(leader)
"what should we do then?"(man C)
"I'll try to talk to it"(leader)
He said and took a step forward while lowering his sword
"ahem... So, little boy, what are you doing here alone?"
The leader asked with the friendliest smile he could muster, after all, it would be annoying if this kid starts to cry.
Before saying anything, Einhard looked around a bit and...
"DUNNO!"
He yelled.
Receiving this kind of answer leaders face twitched but ignoring that he pressed on
"then tell me this, where did you get that knife?"
"goblin!"
After this, there were several more questions to which Einhard answered with the same yell.
Now, these guys are standing in a circle and discussing what to do with Einhard.
In meantime Einhard was following delicious smell which led to a pot on the fire, he didn't know what was inside but it smelled so good that it made his mouth excessively watery and the fact that he was really hungry didn't do him any good either.
As he was about to carelessly scoop boiling hot stew with bare hands one amazing(?) idea flashed in his mind
(wouldn't it be funny if I dump all of the poisonous things I gathered in this pot?)
Thinking that, he reached the belt to take them out but before he could do it the little angel which looked like him appeared and said
"that's no good! You can't do that to your friends!"
With that, he was about to give up on it but in that instant, the second one appeared but instead of an angel he was a devil with horns
"it's OK if you prank your friends sometimes, nothing bad will happen!"
So he said
"well if it's just a prank then it's all good!"
Like this little angel gave his consent
It was all hallucinations though...
Now that everything was out of the way he safely poisoned the food
"hey! What are you doing there!?"(man A)
Looks like this guy was the only one who noticed that Einhard was next to pot
"hungry!"
As all of them were hungry they decided to eat first.
The leader was generous enough to give Einhard some too, but because of the state he was in right now he couldn't really put it in his mouth, physically, really, aiming was very difficult, sometimes he smeared it on his cheek or just drop it, the point is that it was a big struggle.
And after countless tries, he did it and then he fell asleep.
Before passing out he could hear some pained groans but that was least of his concerns.