ASDP Chapter 42

Maga occurred in the town.
In other words, it would not be surprising if an entire town were to disappear. I have heard stories of villages like this happening before, but I have never experienced it myself.

“Well, it occurred in a town, where exactly?”
The scale of the damage would change depending on whether it was in the city or in the surrounding area. But when I asked in a trembling voice, Mike shook his head.
“I don’t know. Anyway, the damage caused by monsters is so bad that we can’t get close to the town. But we can’t get to the royal capital without passing through that town, so this village is now isolated.”
The town had its own market and all sorts of goods were brought in through the neighboring town. If the neighboring town was destroyed, it would cause problems not just related to the effects of the maga, but also to everyday life.
Just thinking about it made me feel anxious and panicked, so I took a deep breath.
Anyway, the reason my father told me to pick mushrooms was to help the people who had turned into monsters. Since we don’t know when monsters will come to this village, the more mushrooms we have, the better.

“Did he say anything about what kind of mushrooms would be good?”
“No. Anyway, we need the mushrooms as soon as possible…”
Basically, any mushroom will stop the monster transformation. It’s a race against time, so anything will do. You don’t want to waste time chasing mushrooms that move around and run away.
Ah. But I remember that glowing mushrooms weaken the undead, so if there are glowing mushrooms around, I should probably pick them first.

“Amelia-chan, can I help you with something? Wouldn’t it be better if we had more people?”
“Please provide a mask, goggles, and work gloves. If you don’t have these, please go down the mountain. There will be a secondary disaster due to the mushrooms.”
Infection occurs when you inhale mushroom spores or take them into your body. At worst, I could use my father’s magic circle to communicate with the royal capital, but if I were to intentionally infect someone with mushroom disease, I would need a lot of medicine to cure it. The number of infected people is expected to increase from now on, so I can’t afford to waste anything.
“…I don’t think you have that.”
Mike wasn’t even wearing gloves, let alone a mask or goggles, and it looked like he had been asked to run here suddenly. Normally, you wear gloves when going up the mountain, so he must have been really in a hurry. He hunched his shoulders dejectedly.
“Then please go down and ask my father for a job. I’ll do what I can.”
“Yes, I will. Amelia, you will be collecting the mushrooms by yourself, so be careful.”
Mike walked back the way he came, worrying about me.

After seeing him off, I take a deep breath.
Something so outrageous has happened that it feels unreal. But even just imagining what lies ahead makes fear rise up from beneath my feet and gives me goosebumps.
This is the first time I’ve ever experienced something like this, so I’m just nervous.
I need to stay calm. It’s important to be nervous, but this isn’t a story about somewhere else, so I can’t panic and get hurt.

“Anyway, mushrooms.”
Without thinking, I just silently harvest whatever mushrooms I can find, searching for glowing mushrooms.
No matter where the maga occurred, if there were monsters in the town, there wouldn’t be zero casualties. And if there are casualties, the undead will be born. The undead can live in the shade, but they are most active at night. And if you are killed by the undead, there is a high chance that you will become an undead yourself, so if we can deliver the glowing mushrooms before nightfall, some people may be saved.

I hate bugs.
But now I’m so scared of the maga that I can’t even feel sick. I just have to hurry and pick the mushrooms, and even though there are caterpillars nearby, I can still pick them without thinking. I can’t be in a hurry. Even though I tell myself that, I can’t pay attention to my surroundings.

After harvesting a large amount of mushrooms, I headed home to discuss it with my father, but when I started to walk further to strengthen my body, I stopped in my tracks.
It is still unknown where the maga will emerge, but what if it really does emerge in a city with no trees?
Looking through my glasses at the trees absorbing and releasing mana, I know that it’s highly possible that the effects of the maga are being contained within the mountain by the trees. I don’t know if that’s really the case, or how the trees are able to do this, but if my hypothesis is correct, what if I sowed tree and grass seeds? They grow well in places affected by the maga. Trees take a fair amount of time to grow, but wouldn’t annual herbs sprout and flower all at once?
I don’t know, but even if we can’t purify the maga, wouldn’t there be people who are saved if we can prevent its effects from spreading even a little?
I strengthen my body and run to where the fruit grows.
I don’t know when the seeds of plants will appear. But if they’re always fruiting, then there’s definitely some. Should I just take some of the grass, root and all? I thought, but then I shook my head.
If the environment is right, grass will take root even if it is pulled out and replanted in soil. But I don’t know if I have enough time to do something I’ve never done before. Besides, my father probably keeps some grass seeds, so I could ask someone to do it later.

Not everyone knows about fruit-bearing trees. We’re told not to pick too many, so we take a few of each. We don’t know which ones are useful, so we want a variety.
Once I had picked a certain amount, I strengthened my body and ran down to the village.
I might have muscle pain tomorrow. But I might not be in a position to complain about it tomorrow. Anyway, I’m just worried.

“Dad, I picked mushrooms.”
“Welcome back. Thank you for your hard work.”
When I opened the door to our house, my father was wearing magician’s robes and holding a wand to assist him in magic.
Alice and Sylphia were also sitting in the chairs in the shop. They both looked pale, perhaps because they had heard about the maga.
“I heard that maga occurred in the neighboring town. Can you tell me as much as you know about it?”
I asked, and my father nodded.
“I found out that something terrible had happened in the neighboring town after Amelia had gone to the mountains. Someone who had gone to town first thing in the morning to sell their produce came back in a panic and told me about the situation. It seemed like the town was already in a state where it was impossible to enter, and there were even monsters appearing on the road to the town.”
“If they didn’t go to the town, how did you know that maga had occurred in the town?”
“It seems they met up with some people who had fled the town along the way. However, it’s unclear where the maga occurred, and the people who escaped saw a monster that was wearing a collar and was clearly a pet dog running wild. Monsterization only occurs in places where maga has occurred. And the fact that it occurred in a short amount of time means that the place was a place where the maga’s influence was strong.”
I hadn’t heard anything about the maga up to yesterday, which means that it must have happened sometime between yesterday evening and this morning.
If it had been the middle of the night when everyone was asleep, there would have been many people who would not have been able to escape.
Some of them must have died, and some must have become monsters or be in the process of becoming monsters.

“The more the undead increase, the more dangerous our village is. They probably wouldn’t make it this far during the day, but we don’t know how far they will spread at night. There is a chance that the monsters will reach the village soon. It will also be very difficult to evacuate by bypassing the town that was serving as a stopover on the way to the royal capital. We must stop the damage before the monsters enter the village at all costs.”
My heart aches when I think of the plight of the townspeople, but we have to think about protecting our own village. As I listened to my father’s story, the faces of the village elders who couldn’t fight came to mind.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading!