Author: TA☆KA	Original Source: Kakuyomu / Syosetu
Translator: Jiro	English Source: Re:Library

Project GB is an official initiative by Re:Library.

Men, on the other hand, wore robes, coats, and capes—all of which also improved mana flow. Apparently, women favored dresses for their blend of function and flair. The girls here were just girls at the end of the day.

And even though the equipment looked like dresses, it was meant to be used inside the forest, so it wasn’t impractical. Bibi and Mia’s tiered skirts were just above the knee, and Corin and Jessica’s bustle skirts flaunted their dazzling thighs.

It was like seeing 19th-century fashion mixed with leather armor. It screamed steampunk.

Which was funny in a world that didn’t have an internal combustion engine, let alone a steam engine.

After all, the whole idea behind the steampunk theme is a fictional world where steam engines are more developed than internal combustion engines. Therefore, for a world where the internal combustion engine was replaced with Magic Technology, it was probably more appropriate to call it something like magicpunk. Or even etherpunk, given the development in ether technology.

With that, we entered the forest’s Safe Zone, dressed in our etherpunk gear.

Children were only allowed to hunt in these safe zones. That didn’t mean it was completely risk-free. Normal animals and low-level Demonic Beasts could still appear.

Luckily, our group could easily manage the Demonic Beasts that appeared in this zone. Even kids could handle them. So, the Safe Zone was often used as a practice ground for kids to get real combat experience.

The hunting was done in pairs: a vanguard with a rear guard. In our case, we formed four pairs.

The vanguards were Cara, Alicia, and Dana. While the rear guard and magic defense would be taken care of by Jessica, Corin, and Bibi. The offensive role fell to Mia.

The groups were as follows: Cara and Jessica. Dana and Corin. Alicia and Bibi. And finally, Mia and I.

Apart from our pair, the other three pairs formed a triangle formation, with each covering a different angle. With one group at the front, we began exploring the forest while keeping an eye on all three sides. Once the battle began, the rear would focus solely on damage control for their respective ally. This prevented children with less experience from suffering severe Mana Loss.

Mia and I were in the center of the triangle formation. Mia was tasked to be a magic attacker, acting like a ranger, casting spells based on the vanguard’s situation. I, on the other hand, was tasked with the role of her guard.

Usually, we would have the one with the scout role, in our case, Cara, do the scouting, but today we left it to Bibi’s Argernon. He could share his senses with small animals, acting like a radar, alerting us to life nearby. Whereas, Bibi could connect her senses to Argernon and share that data with us. The accuracy was amazing, even to me. After this was decided, Cara began pouting and mumbling along the way.

The first enemy we encountered was a group of Sturdy Rats. The Sturdy Rat was like a bat-squirrel hybrid that could glide down from trees and was about the size of a cat, hairless, and bloodthirsty with claws and fangs. Five of them came at once. Cara reacted first. Maybe feeling sidelined from scouting, she threw three blades at the incoming enemies and took one Sturdy Rat down instantly. For the record, the blades she threw were, in fact, kunai. Which was to be expected. She was a ninja after all!

The next one to move was Dana. She had a long reach thanks to her spear, after all.
Wielding her spear with one hand, Dana threw it forward, piercing another Sturdy Rat midair. The trajectory and speed with which the spear went up made it seem almost like a missile.

Following this, Alicia jumped upward. She bounced from tree to tree, making her way up. The Sturdy Rats were flying about 3-4 meters above the ground. So all Alicia had to do to deal with these enemies in the air was to kick them from an even higher point. It was a midair massacre! There should have been a warning sign for this!

Mia handled the last two enemies.

Spear Branch.

Countless tree branches rose like spears, a true show of this plant attack spell. Mia was able to wield both Earth and Water Magic. By combining these two, she could use plant-manipulation spells.

“I love using thorns the most!”

Mia said with a narrowed gaze that sent chills down my spine.

Then came a Bone Spider, a spider-shaped undead made of bones. They were easy to eliminate as long as you crushed their butts, made of bones. Sadly, their movements were just like those of real spiders, making them very creepy!

Jessica told me that the undead spawned from various points in the Amukham Forest, and that there was one such point just to the west. Cara said that Zombies and Skeletons weren’t all that tough and invited me to go hunting for them some other time, but I declined. Bones, like those on the Bone Spider, and ones you’d probably see on Zombies, just creeped me out. “You’re right!” Alicia agreed while laughing.

We then faced a Soil Cap, a hairless, orangutan-like demonic beast with the face and claws of an insect. This beast was slightly tougher, but we defeated it easily with our combined effort. Alicia took on the tank role and diverted the beast’s attacks, while Dana and Cara dealt damage.

Using similar methods, we steadily managed to defeat the Demonic Beasts inside the forest. Taking down this level of Demonic Beasts with this many people honestly wasn’t hard.

Sadly, all of the Demonic Beasts we encountered were Blue for me. Even now, I couldn’t tell which one was weak and which was strong.

I’d even gone through the trouble of borrowing two short swords from Papa Howard, but hadn’t even had the chance to draw them. But I suppose that was fine, as this meant that everyone was able to hunt safely.

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