Chapter 179 - Seeking the exit but Thinking about the next thing ※Nanami's POV

“There aren’t any good spots…” (Nanami)

Even if it is a cliff, there should be ledges here and there with a shape that should allow for resting, but no matter how long I go, the cliff is so vertical that it feels as if it was cut out this way.

With this, even if I were to borrow the help of Ai-chan, we wouldn’t be able to get over it.

Each time we find a living thing, Ai-chan would defeat it and it would be meal time and emergency ration obtained.

We haven’t seen a big lizard since then. It is not an environment that would have that many living things inhabiting the place, so I feel like the chances of being attacked in itself are low.

While I waited for Ai-chan to finish her meal, I picked up any items from the item list in the Status Board that seemed like they would be useful.

Rope, piton, and hammer.

I have done free climbing a number of times hanging out with Celica-chan, but the one that’s not free…I don’t have experience with climbing that uses tools.

I could drive the piton into a rock, hang the rope there, and make it into a safety rope to slowly go up, but…

(That would be impossible. If it were around 100 meters, it would be a different story, but there’s far more than that. I would say even a pro climber would think twice about doing it.) (Nanami)

I really have to rely on Ai-chan, or search for a place where I can climb normally.

Can’t really say there’s no place like that if I go further north.

That said, maybe I should have a rope at the very least? Whichever the case, it all comes to finding a suitable place first.

◇◆◆◆◇

We earnestly ran along, unable to find any good places.

The problem would be getting attacked by beasts, but with Ai-chan here, I mostly don’t need to do anything.

I wanted to save my ammo, so this really helps out a lot.

I am completely being carried here, but from Ai-chan’s perspective, it is simply hunting its own food, so it said there’s no problem with that.

On the contrary, because of me being here, the ones that would normally not attack would come by themselves which is really comfortable.

I am glad to hear I am being of use as bait.

If I had to mention a problem, it would be my own meals.

Right now I have leeway in Points, but with me bringing out sandwiches and onigiris, even 3 Crystals each day would make it 30 Crystals after 10 days…which is worth 1 Point.

The remaining points are your remaining lives. I have to economise it as much as possible.

By the way, Ai-chan can bring out water with Spirit Abilities, so there’s no problem on that front.

And so, I decided to share the meals with Ai-chan.

When I do Monster Appraisal on monsters, the details as a monster are shown, but if I use Item Appraisal to the corpse, it will show the evaluation as a material, and I confirmed whether it is poisonous or not. There’s almost no big living things on Earth that have poison, and maybe it is the same in this world, all of them could be eaten normally.

The name of the giant lizard is Giant Abyss Lizard. No poison. Outer skin is sold off as a material for quite the high price.

I have eaten lizards, or more like, the meat of crocodiles from a stall at an event, but this is my first time eating a lizard. I got the tasty-looking parts with a knife and tried eating it grilled with salt, and it was tasty like a fatty high-quality chicken breast meat. No wonder Ai-chan would eat it happily.

The name of the giant eagle is Giant Abyss Condor. No poison.

This one is a bird no matter how you slice it. I managed to eat it without any problems, but I prefer the lizard.

I am worried about the nutrition balance with just meat, but this is not a situation where I can be bothered by that, so I am prioritizing the calories.

While I was running, there were 2 times when water was coming down from up the cliff. In other words, there was a waterfall (an extremely small one though), and I washed myself there.

It was a bit of a waste, but I bought shampoo with my Crystals to wash my hair, and I washed up Ai-chan whole. It became even fluffier, and it smelled good, so I am really satisfied. Ai-chan said it is a weird stench though.

It felt really freeing and nice to wash my body naked in broad nature.

About the broadcast…I don’t really mind, but since I had the chance, I used the manual camera mode to show Ai-chan floating absentmindedly.

Everyone would prefer watching the cute Ai-chan anyways.

◇◆◆◆◇

“FINALLYYYYYY found it…!!” (Nanami)

I found a place to climb after the 3rd day of using Barrier Stones to take breaks and running on and on.

I got so uneasy at those times and ended up checking the hint 4 times.

All of them had the same answer.

“This is a staircase, right…? For what…? No, maybe there are people who have business here?” (Nanami)

A man-made structure…a staircase. It is a simple one by shaving off rock, but there’s no doubt about it.

Just that, when I looked up, there’s something jutting out from the cliff like a stage that’s acting as a lid, so even if I go all the way to the top of the stairs, I won’t be able to get to the top of the cliff.

It is used at the times when it is necessary and, at any other time, it is made in a way so that no living beings can go up.

But with that, I can just have Ai-chan float at the last part to carry me.

We could also destroy the stage(?) that’s serving as a lid, but there must be a reason why there’s a lid, so I can’t go destroying it for my own convenience.

“Now then, Ai-chan, we are finally getting out of here~. Once we get to a settlement, there will be a lot of people like me, but you must not attack them or eat them, okay? You must not attack other living things on your own whim either.” (Nanami)

—If I get hungry?

“Just tell me. I will prepare it for you.” (Nanami)

—Got it.

—It is okay.

Ai-chan is cute, but I don’t know how the natives will feel about it.

There’s no doubt it is a strong creature, and there’s the chance that they will be scared, but different from a dragon, its appearance isn’t imposing, so I feel like it might unexpectedly work out somehow.

There’s also the problem with Ai-chan. Ai-chan has not been to other areas.

From here on, it will be seeing many other things with that big eye, so it would be a lie if I said I am not worried about that.

People, settlements, fields, farms; I think I will need to teach Ai-chan everything about the places people live in.

Living among people is my own selfishness here, but Ai-chan is intelligent, so I feel like it will work out somehow.

Whichever the case, there will be troubles with living in the human world.

However, Ai-chan floats absentmindedly most of the time aside from the times when it is eating, and it is barely aggressive. I don’t know if it can get along with other people aside from me, but it has the peculiar characteristic of the strong in that it is aloof, and it doesn’t growl like a dog. Or more like, it doesn’t even bark.

In terms of the food, it makes the most sense to live in a dungeon city, and Ai-chan should be able to understand that, so the chances of me being forced into a hermit life are low.

Well, I plan on going straight to Hi-chan, so if the natives have an evasive reaction to this, I just won’t get involved with them. Ai-chan can use invisibility too anyways.

However, thinking about the food expense, I feel like I need to reach the dungeon fast or I will go bankrupt quickly. There’s no problems with food in this danger level 5 zone, but it would be difficult to do so in peaceful regions.

In the hint, it said spirit energy potions can serve as food, but there’s a limit to that. Points are not infinite.

Right now I have 12 Spirit Stones, but if 1 gets consumed per day, it will only last 12 days. That’s not a reliable number.

(…Enough for 12 days, huh.) (Nanami)

I have to take responsibility if I am going to be bringing this child with me.

On the off-chance it ends up attacking people because there was no food, it won’t be a problem that can be wrapped up with a sorry.

No matter how cute this child is, it is not a human. I have my power, so I communicate with it and know that it is intelligent.

But that only applies to me.

If I am going to be bringing this child to a human settlement, I have to do my best to eliminate the possibility of this child injuring people. This is obvious. There’s no need to tie it with a lead like a dog, but it is something similar to that.

In the eyes of others, this child is the very definition of a monster.

“…Ai-chan, let’s go after gathering a bit more food here first.” (Nanami)

We found the exit, so a bit of composure came back to me.

Enough to think about the ‘next thing’. And then, the next thing would be to safely arrive at the dungeon city, and to properly continue preparing the food for Ai-chan.

—Okay.

—I will just follow you.

Ai-chan floated as it answered in that way.

I have to reunite with Hi-chan as fast as possible, but it has gone a whole lot better than I expected until now. After I get out of here, there shouldn’t be too much danger. Having Ai-chan as my comrade, I have gotten more leeway in a lot of points. You could say this meeting was lucky.

Normally, this would have been an even more difficult situation.

To the point that I would be worn-out in every way possible.

That’s exactly why I should make my preparations more thoroughly here.

There’s no problem with using my Points to a certain extent.

With more freedom in my resources, I should make the appropriate preparations.

In order to not mess up on the ‘next step’.