Chapter 152 You're Really Lucky!

-----

After calming down the pair, things resumed, and Zack was able to talk once more about his experiences. I was honestly wondering what else has he seen that might had been Ninhursag.

"Hm… Well, last week I saw her too… I had been wandering near the river to find some fish for lunch, and I saw her there… She was… well… erm…" he muttered.

"What? What was she doing?" I wondered.

"Was she a fish? Can she turn into a fish?" wondered Aquarina.

"No… That's not it… Erm… Well, she was bathing in the river… Of course, when we bath, we are nude, so she was nude there…" said Zack.

Eh? He saw her nude? What a lucky kid!

Both Aquarina and I blushed a bit.

"Y-You're a really lucky kid!" I said.

"Eh?! Lucky?!" asked Zack.

"S-So that was it?" asked Aquarina.

"Actually, no… she noticed me and invited me to take a bath with her, she was very friendly… I ended accepting and she washed my body with the cold water and some soap she had made with herbs and fruit seeds…" said Zack.

"She bathed you for free?!" asked Aquarina.

"What? Did you wanted me to pay her?" asked Zack.

"Only my parents would ever bathe me, so I guess she really sees you as her child…" I said.

"C-Child? Me?!" asked Zack.

"Zack, haven't you realized yet? I think she's very fond of you…" I said.

"Fond of me? Eh? I… I guess…" he said.

I couldn't really understand what was going on inside of Zack's mind, but he probably was somehow a bit happy. I could see on his beautiful emerald eyes that he seemed to give out a bright light, he was really happy now that he realized, but he was able to fake it well with his expressionless face and by trying to avert his gaze from us.

I don't know what sorts of things he went through, but he had certainly grow accustomed to hiding his emotions… I kind of want to hug him sometimes. But Aquarina is very jealous so I most of the time just contain myself.

"Zack, what do you think of Ninhursag?" I wondered.

"W-Why are you asking me these questions so much?!" asked Zack.

"Hey! Calm down! Chill! I am just wondering! I've been curious about her for a while, but I have yet to find her again, and you've been finding her all the time, you even took a bath with her, and she's such a snack!" I sighed while crossing my arms.

"S-Snack?" asked Aquarina.

"Ah… D-Don't mind what I just said a the end…" I said.

"Yeah I might be close to her but it doesn't mean I know everything… Let's just keep looking for her so we can meet her again." Said Zack.

"Alright then~" I said.

I suppose I really shouldn't pressure him, what I've asked is more than enough, if I try to force him, it would come out as rude, and I don't want to make my friend more uncomfortable than he already felt… For now, we decided to just go on with our journey.

The beautiful jungle was filled with verdant greenery, and the sun atop the skies was shining brightly above all. It was an overall pretty beautiful sight. The sound of birds singing and other creatures such as monkeys crying around was also rather soothing, this was the sound of the forest, I guess.

From time to time, we would find beautiful birds we had never seen before, with colorful feathers and dancing around for mates. Other times we found large groups of monkeys rushing around over the treetops or through the vines, most of the time holding fruits within their hands or mouths.

There were also a lot of annoying bugs wandering around, especially mosquitoes, but there was a special spell that Zack knew, named "Wind Membrane" which allowed us to protect us from the bites of bugs by covering our bodies in a very thin layer of wind.

After wandering for a bit, we encountered a group of walking mushrooms. They were red-colored, with four limbs, large eyes, and jaws. They seemed to be quite fixated in something…

They were bullying a little thing. I don't know what it was, but it was certainly small. They were hitting it with their limbs rather strongly.

Do these things hunt? I guess they do fancy meat, but why are they beating something so intensively though?

"Huh? What's that?" wondered Aquarina.

"Five Walking Mushrooms… Seems easy, wanna take them down?" asked Zack.

"Sure but they're bullying a little thing, I can't see well…" I said.

"Looks like some sort of blue-colored creature… Oh well, let's go deal with them and then we can find what it is!" said Aquarina.

"Yeah, I agree." I said.

We stealthily moved behind the Walking Mushrooms. Using my 'Stealth' Spell, which was a no-attribute spell I had brought from my previous life and perfectioned in this second life, I took out my blade and covered in a thin layer of flames.

"Blazing Blade Technique: Blazing Slash!"

SLAAASH!

By slashing the empty air with my blade covered in flames, a slash made of fire was released from the blade, a powerful long-ranged attack and one of the basic ones that my father learned. Because who said swordsman cannot fight from long distance?

CLASH!

The slash made of flames reached my target rather quickly, clashing over the largest of the Walking Mushrooms and setting it in fire. A second one quickly caught in fire as well and they began running around desperately.

"Gryyyaarrr!"

"Gryeeeehhh…"

The other two quickly grew alarmed, realizing what was happening.

But it was too late, Aquarina and Zack appeared behind the other three and attacked them. Zack had been practicing his lightning magic some more now and surprised me when I used it to unleash a thunderbolt attack out of his index finger, the attack was small and precise, electrifying one of the mushrooms and grilling it alive and killing it rather quickly.

----