Kojiin Tamer

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s the chapter, enjoy.

How mysterious. 

I came across a river that flowed through the forest as I was walking around the perimeter of the forest, so I should’ve walked into the forest while staying a bit further away from the river.

However, even though I should’ve walked a distance away, I ended up at the forest’s outer edge before I knew it.

Both my familiars and I tilted our heads in confusion. 

I had Pii-chan survey our surroundings from the sky, and Miu, Queen, and I made full use of our sense of hearing, sense of smell, and mana detection, respectively. 

We tried continuing onwards once more, but we came back to the place where we had been. Neither Miu, Queen, nor I sensed anything in particular. 

However, it seems that Pii-chan, who was in the sky, was the only one who discovered the unusual phenomenon. It seems that we had made a u-turn as we walked. 

Miu and Queen had also confirmed it, but we were walking straight ahead, so we shouldn’t have made a u-turn.

Thinking that it was strange, we once again advanced into the forest whilst staying vigilant of monsters.

However, we came out of the forest again.

When I checked with Pii-chan, it seems that we had turned around at the same place as the previous time.

Relying on Pii-chan, we had it guide us to the place where we would begin to diverge from our path, and we decided to look around the area.

We didn’t know if there was anything there, so we commenced our investigation with an emphasis on caution.

Pii-chan’s signal could be heard coming from the sky. It seems that this was the place.

The distance from the outer edges of the forest was about the same as when we searched for fruit trees, so it wasn’t particularly far away. 

On top of that, Miu, Queen, and I all did not sense a thing. But, we were turning around to go back the way we came.

Thinking about it simply, it would be reasonable to say that there was something there beyond this point.

I tried focusing my mana detection at the place in front of us.

When I concentrated carefully, there was a mana response ahead, though it was weak.

It was a distance away, so it’s not accurate, but certainly, there was a cluster (?) of mana or something.

TN: I forgot to mention before, but those ‘(?)’ are originally in the raws. I just put the parenthesis in so that there’s no confusion as to why there’s a random question mark in the middle of the sentence.

I was curious about this cluster of mana and decided to head towards it.

I had Pii-chan give us directions from the sky, and we were somehow able to advance forward.

Up until now, coming this far into the forest, we would have encountered animals and monsters, but today, we couldn’t find a single one.

As we approached the cluster, its appearance was revealed. 

It was a dome of mana the size of the orphanage.

Mana could not be seen with the naked eye, so at a glance, nothing could be seen. However, when I used mana detection, I understood that the mana took on the appearance of a dome.

And, because the mana was not visible, the interior of the dome was in full view, but there wasn’t anything there….

No, rather than saying there was nothing, there was no difference from the surrounding forest. 

Why in the world were we unable to come here when this dome of mana was here?

I had Pii-chan take a look from above, but as expected, it seems that it was a normal forest.

It would be scary if there was something, so I created a stone using earth magic in a place further away, and threw it at the dome. The stone headed straight towards the dome, but it did not collide with it as it slipped through it. And, when it did so, it disappeared.

What was going on? I tried it again, but the results remained the same.

I picked up the branch of a nearby tree, and carefully approached it.

And, slowly brought the branch closer to the dome.

There was no resistance and the branch penetrated into the dome. However, the part of the branch that should’ve passed through the dome could not be seen.

When I slowly pulled the branch back, the branch returned to its original appearance

Was this dome manipulating the scenery inside?

I tested it  with the various items from my Item Box, but the results remained unchanged.

I had even, more or less, tested it with flowers that still had soil on their roots, but nothing changed.

I wanted to try it with animals, but there weren’t any nearby, so I made up my mind and decided to enter the dome.

I took a deep breath, and just as I was about to enter it, Miu charged at it.

While I was taken aback, Miu stuck its head out from inside the dome.

It seems that it was safe.

After warning Miu to not move around on its own,  Queen and I entered as well.