The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 7 - Chapter 328

Chapter 328:

Detect Magic Skill

We left the dump and headed back to the village.

“It’s so close,” Druid said.

I nodded. Walking the distance made it clear just how close to town the dump was. I could stay alert for auras as we went, but people with faint auras were tough to detect. I could pick them up as long as they were moving, but I might miss them if they were too close.

“And the stronger people in the adventurer guild and the ­village watch can mask their auras. It’s quite a hassle.”

We left Main Street, opting for the emptier roads as we headed back to our inn.

“What should we do about it?” I asked.

“Well, we should have Sora and Flame with one of us at all times. Whichever one of us is free should keep an eye on Sol so we can whisk it into the bag if anyone is coming. That’s really all we can do. We’ll also have to make sure everyone sticks close to us at all times.”

Druid was absolutely right. As long as everyone was close by, we could act quickly if needed. The only problem was that this made our range of movement a lot smaller. It was going to make everyone feel a bit too cramped for space.

“Good idea,” I answered.

“We’ll have Ciel shapeshift into a slime and stay close, too. Come to think of it, Ciel spotted the human auras before you, right?”

“Yeah.”

If Ciel hadn’t warned me, we would’ve acted too late.

“Let’s have Ciel tell us if anyone’s approaching.”

“Okay, I’ll ask.”

I felt a little better having a rough plan in place. It wasn’t perfect, but things would all work out somehow.

“Okay! So I’ll walk either with Sora and Flame or with Sol.”

“I guess that’ll have to do. Oh, but one of the watchmen could sense magic.”

“Yeah.”

Since he’d said it was powerful magic energy, it must’ve been Ciel’s magic he was picking up on. How could he have sensed Ciel’s aura? We always kept it hidden whenever we weren’t deep in the forest.

“He probably has the detect magic skill.”

“The detect magic skill?”

“It’s one of the rarer skills. You can sense magic energy, even when it’s hidden. Depending on the number of stars you have in it, you can also sense the location and level of the magic, too. It’s a useful skill for an ally but pesky to deal with if it’s used against you.”

He was right, it would be a helpful ability for an ally to have.

“We’ll just have to keep an eye on the village watch. If they get suspicious of us, we’ll either have to explain everything to them or give up on the festival and move on to the next village.”

“Okay.”

It really is out of our hands. I wonder how much magic energy he detected? He did say it was powerful.

“Wait…”

“What’s wrong?” Druid asked.

“If he noticed magic energy, why didn’t he search my bag?”

Ciel was in my bag in slime form, so he should have sensed it. Unless Ciel’s magic energy was different as a slime than it was as an adandara?

“You know, you’re right… Nobody’s following us, are they?”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve been searching for auras this whole time because I was afraid they saw something, but it looks like we’re not being followed.”

Everyone in that party of village watchmen had a faint aura, and I’d kept myself alert for them all this time. But they were heading deeper into the forest instead of toward the village, which meant we were safe.

“Okay, good.”

I thought back to the village watchman who could detect magic. He’d seemed genuinely concerned about us going back to the village alone, and I didn’t think he was acting.

“Anyway, I guess we’ll just have to be extra careful,” Druid said.

“Yeah.”

“Ivy, can you sense Ciel’s magic when it’s hidden?”

“No way.”

Come to think of it, how does one go about sensing magic energy anyway? I had read some books on magic energy, but they only talked about how compatible it was with magic items. I probably had a hard time sensing magic energy because my own supply of it was so weak to begin with. That was my theory, anyway.

“What does magic energy feel like to you?” I asked Druid. “I don’t really get it.”

“You don’t get it?”

“Yeah. If I don’t think about magic energy, I forget it even exists.”

“I guess you would.”

“Huh?”

“Magic items are scattered all throughout towns and villages. If you picked up on each and every one of them, life would be pretty hard, wouldn’t it? So everyone who isn’t sensitive to magic energy comes to forget that it’s always there.”

“Is that how it works?”

“Yeah, once you get used to something being a part of daily life, you don’t give it a passing thought. What is the forest like for you?”

The forest? You know, I do sense magic energy when I scan for auras. And now that I think about it, whenever I sensed a monster, I did somehow get an intuitive idea of how powerful it was. So, was my subconscious picking up on magic energy and calculating its power?

“Yeah, whenever I sense a monster’s aura, I sort of naturally pick up on how powerful it is, too.”

“Then you have nothing to worry about. That’s normal.”

Oh… So I’m normal?

“There are some adventurers who can’t detect magic energy at all, much like how I can’t detect auras at all.”

“Oh no! That must be horrible to deal with.”

I could tell how powerful a monster was by its magic energy. If I couldn’t sense that, then how would I know how to deal with it?

“Just one of the adventurers of legend couldn’t sense magic energy, and this adventurer was quite the scholar: There wasn’t any animal or monster they didn’t know about. They probably compensated for their inability to detect magic energy by acquiring as much knowledge as possible.”

That made sense. So that adventurer dealt with the monsters they met not by sensing the creatures’ magic energy but by drawing upon their own knowledge. What a feat. There are so many monsters and animals out there to learn about.

“I don’t know if it’s true or not, but legend has it this adventurer was the first person to write books about monster ecology.”

“That’s really impressive. Is that why they’re famous?”

“No, that adventurer became known for their incredible skill with a magic sword. They’re one of the people adventurers idolize most.”

A magic sword? “Did this adventurer have magic of their own?”

“They couldn’t sense it, but it’s said they possessed high levels of magic energy.”

Wow. I just assumed they couldn’t sense magic because their own energy level was low. Magic energy sure is full of wonders.

“I don’t see any shops around here.” Druid was looking around, so I joined him. We had strayed from Main Street to have a look around the village, but it seemed we’d run clear out of shops.

“You’re right. Should we head back to the inn?”

“Might as well. When we get back, we’ll work on our traps until suppertime. Let’s make the usual strength traps for now and see how they work.”

“You’re having fun, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am.”

“I have to write our faxes before we start.”

“Oh, right! So do I. Oh well, I guess I’ll just breeze through them.”

I’m not sure how that’ll work out. Druid’s father might not mind, but his mother and sister-in-law might have a fit. Oh, and I wanted to tell everyone about Snakey, but we probably shouldn’t. Sometimes third parties peek at other people’s faxes. Oh well.

“Take care, you two,” Chikar the innkeeper called out.

“See you later,” we replied.

We were headed out to the merchant guild. Our itinerary for the day was to send our faxes, go to the dump to feed the slimes, and then set our traps. The location of our traps was key to our chances of success, so I hoped we could find some good spots.

“By the way, what did you finally settle on?” Druid asked. He probably meant whether I’d decided to write about Snakey in my faxes.

“I just wrote, ‘We met some new friends in the forest.’ That’s all.”

“Yeah, I guess you really couldn’t say what actually happened.”

“Nope.”

No way could I write, “Yeah, we all hopped on Snakey’s back and took a ride through the forest!” There was already too much gossip about us.