Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 341

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Episode 341

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius 341

Branches Extending to the World (1)

“How much further do we have to run?”

“I wonder. Shouldn’t that be your job as the guide?”

“No, distance calculation is only possible if you can roughly estimate the speed. I can’t do it in a situation like this where we’re cutting through the wind.”

Legs cut through the wind.

At this speed.

It no longer matters whether the place I’m stepping on is flat ground or a tree branch that’s difficult to set foot on.

“So useless.”

“Hey, you’re just too fast! Look behind you. The Red Knight already couldn’t keep up with the speed an hour ago and is just a distant outline.”

“……Huh?”

It’s true.

Following the words of the baggage on my shoulder, I turned around and saw the Red Knight was quite far away.

It’s only because I’m an elf who has lived in the forest for hundreds of years that I can see a faint outline.

Even a normal human or a beastman with good dynamic visual acuity would shake their head at that distance, saying they practically can’t see it.

“Huh? Did you just say ‘huh’? Seriously… you didn’t know he fell behind a long time ago?”

“I didn’t know because I was running like crazy.”

“What about your ki sense? Originally, a strong person like you would use ki [life force or spiritual energy] to sense things.”

“Do I have the *yoyu* [余裕 – Japanese for leeway or margin] to use it in such a place when I’m running with all my might?”

Of course not.

If I had known the distance had widened this much, I would have run a little slower. I should have controlled my speed a bit.

“Then, how about slowing down now, even if it’s just a little?”

“Hmm…….”

“There’s no reason to run so fast when the distance has widened quite a bit.”

“That’s true.”

If there’s no reason to run as fast as we are now, it’s better to slow down and conserve stamina and strength.

And that would be better for Luna, whose hair and clothes are all messed up by the wind.

However, things in the world don’t always go as planned.

“But I don’t think I can slow down.”

“Yes? Why is that again?!”

“Think about it logically. What would happen if I suddenly braked while running at this speed?”

“……Ah.”

It’s obvious without even looking.

My legs would break.

“Then you can slow down slowly. Very slowly!”

“I don’t know if slowing down a little will help when we’re running at this speed.”

“……Ah.”

Luna, who roughly calculated the running speed, sighed.

“Haa, it’ll take at least two hours just to decelerate.”

I don’t know how many times she’s sighed today.

“Will we arrive at the Sacred Tree by then?”

“We’ll have plenty of time to arrive! Assuming we ride a horse all day, it’s roughly four days away? But we’ve been running at this speed for several hours.”

“It’s almost right in front of us now.”

Thump! Thump!

Until now, I minimized meaningless movements to maximize speed while running on the trees, but to gradually reduce speed, I jumped upwards every time I stepped on a branch.

Crack!

Thanks to this, the branches I stepped on couldn’t withstand the great impact and began to break and fall, but thanks to this, I definitely succeeded in reducing the speed.

The trees can just think they got pruned today.

I nonchalantly rationalized to myself and continued to run like that.

“Ugh! Ah! Please! Is there no way to decelerate normally! Ugh! Ah, is there no way!”

“Keep your mouth shut. It’s really dangerous.”

Thanks to jumping upwards every time I stepped on a branch, the speed was gradually decreasing significantly, but the problem was the ride.

I was moving myself, so I didn’t care.

But Luna was in a terrible state.

“If you keep talking like that, you’ll bite your tongue and cut it off.”

“I don’t care about my tongue. I feel like my stomach is turning inside out and about to explode! Please slow down in another way!”

It seems her stomach is not in good condition enough to not care about her tongue.

But there was no other way.

Because I’m already decelerating like this.

“Sa, save me……!”

Eventually, as we approached the Sacred Tree.

Luna looked like she was on the verge of death.

Immediately after arriving, as soon as I put her down on the ground, she collapsed, said the world was spinning, and then immediately fainted.

“She has a weak sense of balance.”

As expected, is it because she grew up precious as a High Elf?

To faint from just this much shaking.

I shook my head.

“It seems I’ll have to explore alone after all.”

In the end, the exploration became my responsibility.

If that’s the case, why did she say she would come along as a guide?

Unable to understand, I raised my head and looked at the sky.

There was a strong light shining in the sky, but it wasn’t so strong that I had to squint.

Green light, just the right level of illumination.

‘The tree is so big.’

All of this is because all sides are under the leaves of the Sacred Tree. The green light was a very small amount of light that penetrated through countless branches and leaves.

Since there is such a huge tree, the plants and animals underneath will probably live their whole lives seeing this green light instead of sunlight.

“By the way, this tree. Does it move?”

Thump, thump.

I pounded the body of the Sacred Tree with my fist.

It didn’t feel particularly hard.

“The outer feel and hardness are just like a normal tree.”

There’s really nothing special about it?

I was greatly embarrassed because it was completely different from what I had expected.

─Why? Is it a little different from the big tree you met?

‘It’s very different, not just a little.’

─How different is it?

‘Everything is different except for the size and species of the tree.’

The huge tree that pierced the sky in my old memories.

It was as violent as its size.

Suddenly, the roots broke through the floor and pierced people’s feet and intestines, turning them into mush.

The leaves, larger than an adult male, curled up sharply like thorns and pierced the ground like a gun with unlimited magazines.

And the tree trunk was so hard that even ordinary axes and swords couldn’t leave a trace.

Only a body strengthened with magic power and a sword with sword energy could barely make a scratch.

And it didn’t burn even when set on fire.

“……Strange.”

I desperately looked around.

─What’s so strange?

‘……I can’t see the roots.’

─I was wondering what it was.

Tamamo pointed to the ground with her translucent hand.

─The roots are naturally in here.

‘That’s usually the case, but if such a big tree really puts down roots, how deep do you think it would dig?’

─Uh…… It would have to dig pretty deep to support itself.

It probably wouldn’t be easy even if it dug to the depth where the ground melts due to geothermal heat.

In that case, the roots of the Sacred Tree naturally exist in a wide, horizontal form.

But considering that, the roots should be a little visible.

This is like there are no roots at all.

‘Should I dig up the ground first?’

You never know.

The Sacred Tree might be special and have no roots.

There’s no need to dig with my hands.

Thwack!

I kicked the ground with my foot.

Then the ground was greatly dug up, and a mountain of dirt piled up on the other side.

After repeating the process several times, the ground was dug really deep.

For a normal tree, it wouldn’t be strange to see the entire tree root, but.

No matter how much I dug, I couldn’t see the roots of this tree.

Feeling something was wrong, I moved my feet stronger and faster.

At that moment. Something brown wriggling caught my eye.

Thump!

This time, I kicked my foot really hard.

Thanks to this, the area shook greatly.

A loud noise rang out with the vibration, and the brown thing I had just seen finally revealed its appearance.

“I finally found the roots.”

Its identity is the Sacred Tree’s.

“……Huh? Is this not a root, by any chance?”

I don’t know if it’s a root or not.

I can’t tell at all.

No, if it’s a root, it’s a root.

I don’t know what it means to not be able to tell.

─The shape is definitely a root, but the color is really strange.

‘A root the color of the universe? Is this a root?’

I doubted my eyes even while looking at it.

A color that I couldn’t believe was a root.

And the strange sphere hanging at the end of the root.

The sphere, which looked like a glass bead, was larger than most people.

Everything is strange.

The root color is strange enough, but it’s also strange that no living things are detected nearby. At first, I thought there were no animals nearby, so I thought the Sacred Tree was emitting a scent that repelled animals.

But even insects or small fungi that should be near the roots are not detected.

This is like.

‘It’s like land where living things can’t live.’

Land without animals, insects, and fungi.

I haven’t checked everything, but probably not even animal bones are buried within a radius of several tens of kilometers.

But to say that it’s land where living things can’t live at all.

─The plants are living just fine.

‘I find that strange too.’

Animals can’t, but plants can live?

Ah, my head is really complicated.

The ecosystem here seems to be flowing completely differently from the knowledge I have. At this rate, even if I collect information, it’s useless.

In the current situation, more fundamental information is needed.

Just in case, I dug up the ground and found more tree roots.

A total of 6 rootstocks.

The size and small number are not small, but it was too small compared to the area I dug up.

It seems this tree spreads its roots very widely.

Each rootstock seemed to be stretching its roots all over the country to absorb energy for efficient energy supply without overlapping.

‘I understand why the roots are so hard to find.’

Now it’s time to explore what this strange color and the glass beads at the end of the roots are. I stared at the glass beads from a distance.

─Aren’t you going to get closer?

‘How do I know what those glass beads are and observe them up close.’

Unless stability is secured.

At least I have to keep some distance to watch.

How long had I been observing like that?

“……!”

Something began to appear beyond the glass beads.

The first thing I saw was the root.

Gradually, what was entangled in the root came into view.

And it was enough to shock me.

“Ah……!”

Beyond the glass beads.

In that place.

“……Why is my house there?”

There was a house.