I arrived at the forest where the bee tree was located by riding Swaying Bear. According to Helen-san’s story, the tree was at the center of the forest, and I would understand which tree it was when I saw it. She said that the view was breathtaking. What did she mean?
I thought that a giant beehive was something more revolting than beautiful, though.
I used detection magic to confirm where the monsters were before I entered the forest. There were about 15 orcs. There were also goblin reactions a bit further ahead. It seemed that neither information was false.
I rode Swaying Bear without hesitation. After I had advanced for a while, flower petals started to dance in the air around me. I continued to move forward, and when I left the forest, I was greeted by a colorful field of flowers.
The field expanded endlessly. The flowers were spread out everywhere. It was a scene I couldn’t have believed could be found inside a forest. A giant tree was standing in the middle of this scenery.
Was that the bee tree?
「It’s huge….」
Still, there were things destroying this beautiful landscape. The orcs were eating honey, and their ugly faces were dripping with drool.
When I thought about killing them and leaving the forest, goblins rushed out from my right. They continued to run towards the orcs. The goblins, holding wooden poles and knives picked up from an unknown location, attacked the orcs.
Well, since I had seen both groups with my detection magic, I had intended to kill them all, so this was great, and less trouble for me.
I thought of attacking when it was clear who would win, so I decided to wait and see, but I had to drop that idea after a few seconds. The orcs and goblins were crushing the flowers while they fought. The place where I could get honey was… At this rate, all flowers in the area would be crushed by the time the battle ended.
They were, without a doubt…
「Bears!?」
Yes, the two figures that entered the fray were bears.
The bears attacked the goblins and the orcs, who both hesitated after their attack.
When the orcs saw that the goblins had ran away, they changed their targets and started a new battle.
When a bear attacked one orc, there was another orc that attacked the bear from the side. The orcs attacked the bears with clubs, and the bears, who couldn’t defend themselves, were taking hits. I didn’t really want to save the bears, but they were surrounded by the orcs.
「Hmm, what should I do?」
In other words, there was a three way battle for the honey.
What should I do then?
I was a bit reluctant to kill be
ars, though. Not to mention, there was no way I could kill them. It would be like killing Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear’s friends.
Those bears were strong.
The second the bears wanted to change targets, their movements became dull. A red orc appeared by the giant tree. It was an orc subspecies, an orc of a different color that also appeared in the game. They were several times stronger than the normal orcs, in regards to their offensive abilities and durability.
The second bear rammed into the orc, but the red orc didn’t even budge. The red orc wanted to strike it down, right there, but at that moment, I started to move.
The bear that was struck down shakily ran away into the forest. The other bear chased after it.
It wasn’t something that made me feel comfortable, so I left, riding Swaying Bear.
Was the bear okay?
It was strong enough to obliterate an orc.
We reached the two bears without me needing to tell Swaying Bear where to go. No, to be more accurate, there were four of them. If they were a family, it meant that they were a married couple, right?
One of the adult bears was collapsed on the ground, and the second one was looking at us and started to intimidate us.
Could he communicate with them?
What did they talk about?
Swaying Bear came back and used his nose to push my body towards the collapsed bear.
「Do you want me to heal his injuries?」
Swaying Bear let out a small cry.
「I understand.」
It was Swaying Bear’s request. I didn’t want to refuse that. Also, I couldn’t just leave an injured bear alone.
After seeing that, it wasn’t possible for me to kill this bear family anymore, even if it meant that I couldn’t get the honey.
Of course, because I couldn’t speak Bear language, I didn’t understand any of it. Were the bears having a friendly conversation? Swaying Bear was the only outsider, and I would be troubled if he became timid again, so I summoned Hugging Bear as well.
After a while, their conversation ended. Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear came back. They came to me while crying with cute voices, as if they wanted to request something.
「What? What’s the matter? Do you want me to kill the red orc?」
They let out [Ku~un] cries.
The parent bears started moving again, leaving their children behind.
As I was thinking about what to do, Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear cuddled up to me.
「I understand. I will go and think about what to do afterwards. For now, we should just kill the red orc.」
Were they happy with my answer? Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear cried out happily.
The orcs were encamped around the giant tree. The red orc was also amongst them.
When the red orc cried out so loudly that the cry resounded in my head, the orcs started to rush toward us.
Hmm, the two of them seemed to want to have a go at it, but it was okay for me to just kill the orcs, right?
I shoot a Bear Cutter and cut off the heads of the approaching orcs. When the red orc saw that, he roared with even a louder voice.
「Shut up!」
Thanks to how loud it was, I unconsciously closed my eyes. The red orc and other orcs immediately started running.
Ah, are you two leaving me?
The problem was the target that the red orc was headed towards.
He struck at Papa Bear with his club. From the side, Mama Bear started to run in order to tackle the orc. It turned into a free-for-all fight, so I couldn’t use my magic.
The red orc’s club scattered the flowers and was stuck in the ground. Mama Bear attacked the red orc from the side. She slammed into him, but the red orc didn’t budge at all. The red orc raised his club once again. Papa Bear rushed in to attack, since the target of the club was Mama Bear. Before Papa Bear could attack, the club had already struck Mama Bear’s back.
*Puchi*
Mama Bear cried out and collapsed. At that instant, the Papa Bear attacked the red orc. The red orc used the club to hit Papa Bear from below, on his flank.
*Puchi* *Puchi*
The parent bears both collapsed at the red orc’s feet, crying.
I moved the moment he raised his club.
It had been a long time since I last snapped like this.
If a bear attacked a human, I would fight them. Bears were fierce, and they ate meat.
It was possible that they would attack humans in the future, but right now, I wanted to protect them. I didn’t know what would happen in the future. At the moment though, I was excessively driven by the urge to kill this red orc.
I would fight in place of the bears. I would make him feel the same pain the bears felt.
If you want to have a battle of strength, I will accept it.
This is for Mama Bear. I drove a Black Bear Kuma Punch into his unprotected flank, and he lost his grip on the club because of the pain. The club was trapped in the White Bear’s mouth. I then placed it in the Black Bear’s mouth.
It was too late to look at me like that now.
I raised the club over my head and struck the red orc with it. The red orc tried to catch the club like I had.
I pulverized the red orc’s arm.
The red orc let out a soundless cry.
The red orc turned around and tried to flee.
When I turned around, Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear had almost finished the orc extermination. I approached the collapsed bears and healed them. There was absolutely no way I could kill these bears now.
The bears got up and rubbed their bodies on me, maybe to show their gratitude?
「Hey, please don’t attack the humans who come to pick up honey, okay?」
I asked, even though I knew the words wouldn’t come across. I had never wanted to understand a bear’s words as much as I did today.
When I was thinking about that, Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear approached the parent bears and started their conversation.
The bears turned around and started to push me towards the bee tree.
「Are you asking me to go and fetch honey?」
Swaying Bear answered the question for them.
I approached the bee tree. The bees flying around the tree didn’t attack me. I took a pot out of the Bear Box and carefully collected honey.