THE DARKNESS WAS COMFORTABLE FOR ME

Chapter 19: Sprint and Last Day

I can walk without any problems at night.

Thinking about the remaining distance, I would need at least 8 days to get out of the forest.

And I have 5 points remaining.

“I had 9 points, so would I have been able to get out of here in a safer manner if I had done the cycle of using a Barrier Stone in the day and walking at night…?” (Hikaru)

In the end, I couldn’t make calm decisions.

Barrier Stones work for 12 hours, so if I were to break them in the morning, they would be useful till evening.

“No point in worrying about that.” (Hikaru)

It has already passed.

I have managed to not use too many Crystals, and yet, they aren’t accumulating much, and I don’t feel like it will reach 30 for that 1 point in the time I am in this forest.

Then, I should use my Crystals to aim for escape here.

It is currently 6:00pm.

Yesterday I walked all night and broke a Barrier Stone in the morning.

It is beginning to get dark already.

Time to move.

I pick the items that I can exchange with Crystals and can realistically use.

[Physical Strength Recovery Potion 3 Crystals.]

[Stamina Potion 3 Crystals].

These are the ones.

The Physical Strength Recovery Potion is apparently medicine that blows away fatigue. Must be like a stimulant. Don’t think it will have any side-effects to the body, I hope…

The Stamina Potion apparently increases endurance. Like an energy drink? It is 3 Crystals, so the effect should be high.

These two are honestly useful.

Crystals can also be exchanged for food and other small things that are important, yeah, but I decided to mainly focus on these two.

I currently have 14 Crystals.

For now, I buy a Stamina Potion.

What came out of the screen when I tapped it was a ceramic cup with orange colored juice inside.

“It is the type that you have to drink right away.” (Hikaru)

Looks like they don’t give it to you in a way that can allow you to store it for later.

Well, you can put it in another container, but in situations like mine, that wouldn’t be an option.

When I tried drinking it, it tasted like orange juice. It might have been tailored for Earthling taste. I am just happy it is a taste I can enjoy.

I don’t feel like my endurance has increased, but I will trust it does.

I undo the barrier and chant [Darkness Fog].

I conceal myself in the darkness and run.

I say that, but it is more like jogging.

I am not the athletic type to begin with, so I am more scared about running in a bad way and ending up injured from that.

Even so, this will reduce the distance faster than just walking.

“I definitely will live out of this. I am getting out of this forest.” (Hikaru)

I use the darkness and jog through the night.

Remaining distance to get out of the forest: 280km.

◇◆◆◆◇

It is going well.

I continued running solely at night for 4 days.

The stamina potions and physical strength recovery potions were properly doing their work.

I drank stamina potions, ran till my very limit, then drank physical strength recovery potions to run once again till my very limit.

I now managed to go 50km in one day.

I was thinking about running in the daytime too, but that’s no good.

I don’t know where monsters will show up. Monsters go away once I use a Barrier Stone, but walking at times other than night has quite a lot of dangers, so it was impossible.

Wolves weren’t the only monsters, there were also small versions of those giant burning monkeys, and also strangely aggressive deers.

The forest was filled with death as if the low amount of monsters in the territory of the giant monkey was a lie.

Now that I look closely, there’s bones of animals here and there, and because of this, there were a lot of nuts and fruits growing around.

Life and death.

What a strange forest.

Or maybe this is what an isekai looks like.

And then, I broke the last stone with my last point, and when that was over, I did my last spurt run in this forest.

My Points and Crystals are 0.

With this, if I don’t manage to get out of this forest, I don’t know what will happen.

“Haaaah…! Haaaah…! 80km remaining…! Damn it!” (Hikaru)

The strange thing about this forest is that the closer you are to the exit, the more lush and densely it begins to grow.

The openings between the trees began to narrow, and the branches growing out were making it unbelievably difficult to run.

I rarely get attacked by monsters in this deep darkness.

There’s almost no nocturnal animal that attacks humans in this forest.

There are times when a feline beast would look at me with shining eyes as if it was going to attack me, but I managed to get away from it with Darkness Fog a 100% of the times.

I was close to invincible inside the darkness.

That’s why I wanted to get away from here while it was night.

I wanted to, and yet…

“It is beginning to get bright…! This is bad… Damn it…!” (Hikaru)

The morning sun was peeking its face all carefreely, and the forest was beginning to change color.

I open the map and see there’s 42km remaining.

There’s still 1 full marathon left.

It is a despairing distance.

I ran all night, so of course I am tired.

But it is already impossible to sleep.

I have to do this.

I have over 1 billion daily viewers now.

They must know I used up all my points.

Are they cheering for me?

Or are they looking forward to seeing me die pathetically?

There’s 1 billion different opinions for those 1 billion people.

I was given 3 Crystals for going over 1 billion viewers.

I immediately buy a physical strength recovery potion and drink it.

What I have left is my Dark Spirit Abilities that have no offensive power, and my meager body.

“[Darkness Fog].” (Hikaru)

I try to run to the darker places there are inside this forest.

I have come this far.

I don’t want to die.

For the sake of Nanami.

For the sake of my family.

…And for the sake of the viewers that are watching me.

But as if throwing a cold bucket of reality on me…the howling of wolves resonate around me…