Miniature Garden Chemister - Chapter 6

Volume 1 — Different World Life, Start
Living Basis — 3

It’s been almost half a year since I came to this world <Letisreel>.
I, Kusunoki Hinami, had not set one foot outside my home.

“Haa…”

I sighed as I had salad on the table inside the house.
I wonder if this is a sigh, or if I’m just tired.

“I want some meat…… There’s only vegetables and fruits……”

Since I could easily get vegetable and fruit seeds, I am growing them in the fields. Because of that, I am leading a vegetarian life but I can live.
For the seasoning, I have salt, sugar, pepper and olive oil. This is now my diet. I’m a splendid vegetarian now.
By the way, I heard from god using the exchange diary that I’ll need to hunt animals from the forest for meat. But because I’m scared of monsters I never saw before… I didn’t set a step to the forest.
Ah, right. This morning, wheat seeds became available to exchange. So I’m planning on planting them in the field later. I decided to not worry about the fact that I didn’t have anything to bake bread in for now.

And now, after half a year passed, the house and garden became better.
First the interior of the house. I added a room and the rooftop, and divided the place into a bedroom and a living room. On the rooftop, I am raising herbs for spices and drying laundry.
As for the herbs, they are lined up beautifully in the vases that could be exchanged with points. Since I can immediately harvest them using ‘Angel’s Voice (Sanctuary)’ I’m not growing a lot.
Currently I have kosho, satoult and oli, three kinds. By the way, from the fruits of oli I can get olive oil.
Also, I made flowerbeds for herbs in the garden. Currently I have only ‘health grasses’ and ‘red grasses’, two kinds. I searched the garden hard, but they were the only kinds I could find.
So I ended up at an unfortunate situation where I can only get points from health restoratives (high potions).
Also, about the seeds I can exchange with points. I learned that there is a random assortment of six kinds of seeds. When I exchanged it with points, I got seeds for carrots, pumpkins, potatoes, cucumbers, broccolis and tomatoes. But since they’re random, I can’t say that they will be the same next time.

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“Nn. Let’s do my best today…!”

I opened the treasure chest in the basement and put on the armour and equipped the sword.

Maybe it might be good to start exploring a little around the house? I started thinking. I had been repeating thinking of it and hesitating at the last moment from a month ago. However, today for sure I’ll take a step into the forest. Even if I say so, I didn’t see any monsters nor hear monster sounds from the garden so they wouldn’t be close……
By the way, a bit about this forest where this house is. After consulting the map god gave me, it looks like it takes about less than half a day… I guess? The distance is something close to that. I’m curious about the city, but I don’t have the courage to travel through the forest for half a day.
In addition, I haven’t seen any people. If it’s half a day distance away, I think people should have come, but……

I went out to the garden and took deep breaths.
Today is the first exploration of the forest.

“Alright, I have the health restoratives (high potions) I made. The plan will be running away with a dash if there’s anything…! Okay!!”

Then, I took a stop out from my home which is being protected by ‘God’s Miniature Garden’. Nn, looks like it’s alright for now.
To be honest, I was scared that it looked like a beautiful forest because of ‘God’s Miniature Garden’ but then would be, ‘It was a deep and dark forest!’
Thankfully, the forest had the same beautiful scenery I was looking at. Maybe, this is a nice forest without monsters.

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“……Ah! That’s blue grass…!?”

I took only 10 steps outside the garden, but I made a great discovery. There were many ‘blue grasses’ which are one of the ingredients for making mana restoratives (mana potions). There was thick vegetation behind them so I couldn’t see other grasses but I could find the blue grasses.
I crouched down and started picking the blue grasses, putting them away into the rucksack I brought. So that I can grow them in the garden I carefully dug them from the root.

As I proceeded further into the forest, I then came across ‘orange grasses’.

“Th-These are… the herbs for scarlet restoratives ‘garnet potions’!”

With these, I could make 2 new kinds of restoratives (potions).
The forest was pretty and without monsters. Maybe I should have come a little quicker… to the forest. But no use worrying about the past. For now, let’s explore lots and make up for lost time.
But then, I wonder, if my gratitude to god was not enough…?

About 15 minutes of walking later.
I saw a large rock and sat down there for a bit of rest.
I filled about half my bag with blue grasses and orange grasses. A little bit of mushrooms with that. I found them on tree roots while strolling. They look like mushrooms, but I’m planning on searching them up with the book. If they are edible, I’ll cultivate them back home for food.
Then, suddenly, from behind, I heard a rustling sound.

“Kue—!!”

“Ah…!”

I thought it was a safe forest…! From the sudden ‘voice’ my body froze up. Could this be the ‘monster’ god talked about…
In response to the voice from the bush behind me, cold sweat flowed down as I hastily stood up. I had the sword from the adventuring set, but I never used it before.
Ahh, I should have trained a bit before coming to the forest…… I regretted a little. But I don’t think my reflexes are good, so not much might have changed…
First, I have to carry out the plan. The command is of course, escape…

“If I dash to my home, it will be my vic… tory… huh?”

I turned my gaze to what I thought was a monster… to ‘that’ which appeared.

“Chickens…?”
“Kueh!”

The things that suddenly appeared from the bush were not ‘monsters’ but two chickens.
I don’t know why there are chickens here. But if I can get these two, I’ll have eggs on the table… I want meat too, but I unfortunately don’t have the skills to butcher chickens. Even if it’s for eating, killing’s scary.

“Kue—! Kueh!!!”
“Kukuk!!”
“It’s not… Kokeh. It’s a bit cute for some reason.”

Since I had been alone, I felt a bit healed from the 2 moving. It’s lonely having no one to talk to, should I say…… It feels strange. So recently I’ve been talking to myself quite a bit.
Feeling pleased at the two that suddenly started squawking wild, I pondered how to get the chickens. If they’re wild chickens, I want to invite them to my home.
Then, suddenly, the chickens ran towards and dashed past me in a blink..

“Eh! Why so suddenly…”

At the same time, the bush shook greatly.
Then there was a medium-sized dog… no, wolf… I guess.
However, that ‘wolf’ did not look cute but looked like it was hunting prey with a smile. There was also something ominous about it. Like a ‘monster’……
Then, I stepped back in surprise.

“This is a ‘monster’……!?”

No.
Scary…! I had no idea when the wolf glaring at me would pounce at me. I took a few steps back and widened the distance. If I get caught by the wolf, I won’t live.
Fear ran through my body and paralysed me as though I was getting a night terror. But still, I had no choice but to take slow steps with my trembling legs.

“Grrr…”

For an instant, the wolf let out a low growl, put some strength into its legs and pounced at me.

“Noooooo!!!”

There’s no time to be saying it’s scary. I screamed to get my legs moving and turned around and started running. It took about 5 minutes here, walking here slowly while picking herbs. Then, if I run desperately like now, I wonder when I will return…?
At the place I was standing at before I started running, the wolf was there now. It seems that I barely managed to not be late. If my judgement had been wrong for even a moment I might not have been alive now.

“Ha, ha… Kuu……”

I desperately ran through the forest. It felt as though I ran for many hours but I can’t laugh since barely a minute had passed in truth. Now the distance has closed and it’s right up to me… around 5 metres away. Considering the leap before, this distance shouldn’t be much, but maybe it’s not doing that because it’s enjoying chasing me.

“Ah…!”

Unused to the forest, I tripped on a tree root poking out of the ground and fell over. When I was thinking it’s not good, the wolf was right up behind me.
I desperately stood up and immediately started running.

“Ow…!”

Maybe because I was late in running, my right arm which was still on the ground was cut by the sharp claws of the wolf. But I can’t stop just because it hurts. Also, it will be worse if other ‘monsters’ appear from the smell of blood.
Soon, my home came into my sight.

“A little, more…! Uu… Ah…!!!”
“Grrr……”

I might not make it this time.

The wolf pounced at me, knocking me to the ground.
As the wolf slashed my shoulder, a pain I never felt before shot through my body. Salive dripped from the wolf’s mouth onto my neck, consuming me with fear that I will be eaten, stealing my voice.

No… I’ll be eaten……!

Overcome with fear, I didn’t have room for tears.
Ah, god… I’m done for now.

“Sorry god… I couldn’t pay anything back yet…”

In the midst of my fear, the only thing I could say was one last sentence for god.
Then I shut my eyes tightly and braced myself for the oncoming pain.
However, what came to me was not pain.

Right, it was god’s voice……

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“Hina! Use ‘Rhapsody of Light (Light Rhapsodia)!!”

When god’s panicking voice echoed through my head, I remembered that I still had a skill. I wonder if I’m stupid for forgetting that I had a defensive skill……

“Kuu…! Rhapsody of Light (Light Rhapsodia)!!”

The voice I squeezed out echoed through the forest and danced in the forest.
That moment, behind me… in front of the wolf, a shining magic shield appeared. The wolf was bounced away, sent flying to the tree that was behind me.
Ah… did I defeat it…?

“You can’t defeat with defensive skills. Get back to your home before it gets up…!”
“Ah…! Y-Yes!”

Come to think of it, my skill was specialised for defensive.
It hit a tree… I was thinking, but if that was enough to defeat a monster I wouldn’t be having this much trouble. For now, I thanked god and started running for my home before the wolf could get up.
To be honest, my whole body hurts… but there’s no room to rest.

“Grr”
“Ah…!

Recovering, the wolf was getting up when I looked back.
But my home was already right in front of me.

Only, 3 metres more.

“I’m baaaaack…!”

I rolled into the garden and felt relief.
This is the area inside my skill ‘God’s Miniature Garden’ so monsters can’t come in. It should be so.
However, the wolf did not lower the speed as it came for me. To get me, it came flying at me from 10 metres away. But that did not come true. And invisible barrier refused to let the wolf in.

“…Amazing.”
“Kueh!”

To my mumbling, there was a cute answer.

“Eh… a reply?”

When I turned around in surprise, there were the chickens I saw before.
How could they come into ‘God’s Miniature Garden’? I was a little bothered… but if they’re here it means they’re not harmful to me.

“You ran away from the wolf and came to my garden…? Welcome!”
“Kue~”
“Kuk!”

When the two cried as if in response, I loosened my expression.
And at that moment, pain shot up through my whole body. I was reminded from the pain that I had been done in terribly by the wolf.
I quickly took out a health restorative (high potion) from my rucksack and sprayed it over my body. Then in a blink the numerous wounds on my body disappeared. I made it myself, but I was surprised at its potency. It’s only now I learned the effect because I was never hurt before.
Just in case, I took another out from the bag and drank it down. There weren’t any more external injuries, but it would be if I had internal injuries.

“Huh… I thought it wouldn’t taste good… but it’s delicious!”

No, not just delicious, this is… right.

“Green tea…?”

The health restorative (high potion) I drank tasted like green tea.
Tea inside a cute and small bottle with a heart symbol. Well, it is green so it might make sense… does that mean I sprayed tea over myself to heal the wounds?
It felt a little strange, but now I can have tea. I decided to end with that.

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“……God?”

Then I noticed that I can’t hear god’s voice.
I shouted loudly but there was no response.
I wonder if he went out of his way to help when he was not to intervene…?

“Thank you god……”

I looked up at the sky and said that.
I was saved by god again. I wonder how much I have to do repay his kindness. Actually, can I return it in my life…?

I’m still weak, but I’ll collect lots of points to pay god back.