Humanity Return

Ch. 34 – Compress Gear

The gorilla started jumping around in confusion after seeing his shrunken body

“No need to panic, do the same”

“Hoh Hoh..”.

His left index finger touched the cloth again and this time, runes emerged from his entire body and were sucked into the cloth.

The changes started happening again and his body started to enlarge at a speed that could be seen by the eyes then after ten seconds, his body returned to normal.

Sensing the new sensation, he began to repeat it several times. This time he only needed ten seconds to reach 80 centimeters tall and no light appeared from his body anymore.

“HOH! HOH!”

Ten seconds, big. Ten seconds, small. Recur.

Aura looked very surprised and was interested in this scene.

Rufus who was lying not far from there could only stare at this enlarged and shrinking Gorilla with a strange gaze.

“Ruff..”

Aura had already stepped closer to him without him noticing.

“Rufus..”.

Hearing his name being called, Rufus turned his head and found Aura looking at him with shining eyes and a wide smile. Seeing that new expression, he felt a little depressed. Without realizing it, I woke up and stepped back.

Realizing the rejection, Aura's eyes stopped shining and turned sad.

“Alright... if you don't want..”.

Aura had already turned around to return the cloth to Leinn.

Seeing that limp step, Rufus could not bear it and finally walked over to Aura.

“Woof”

“B-really?! Are you sure?”

“Woof..”.

His wide smile instantly returned and with a single move he managed to put the cloth around Rufus' neck.

“Huh”

Aura realized the cloth had lengthened until it was enough to circle the neck of the big wolf.

Rufus also began to drain Mana into the cloth around his neck, making the same runes start to come out and fill his body.

The same light appeared and after 20 seconds, his body stopped shrinking. At 60 centimeters tall and about 130 centimeters long, he looks like an ordinary wolf.

Shaking his new body, he started walking and entered into Aura's tent.

“Hoh...!”

While the Gorilla Beast was still growing and shrinking for several minutes.

Leinn and Aura returned to where they had been sitting before and began to continue their dinner.

The sun finally sank and the darkness of the night filled the meadow.

But the lights in their two tents were enough to illuminate the seats of the two of them.

After the dried meat pouch in her hand was half left, Aura started the conversation again.

“How can you have these two Compress Gears? Didn't you just find out about the Contracted Beast last night?”

“Hm? Oh, I heard that Compress can shrink the Beast's body wearing it, so I wanted to give it a try. All that happened was that my body became heavier”

Aura showed a strange expression after hearing that information, it turned out that Leinn had once tried the Runed Gear that was supposed to be used by the Contracted Beast.

Leinn did not realize that and continued his story.

“So I thought I bought a troubled Compress, so I bought another one and tried it again. Turns out the results were still the same, so I bought again and tried again”

“...huh?”

“After the tenth still failed and I stopped buying it again, finally I was forced to trust the information I got from my friend it”

Leinn chewed on the dried meat in his mouth.

Aura gave the dried meat in her hand to Rufus who took out his head from inside the tent.

“Do you want more?”

“Ah, t-not necessary”

A new aura dawned when Leinn almost crawled into his tent to pull out the remaining Compress from his big bag.

Hearing Aura reject her offer, die sat back down and finished her meal.

The Gorilla Beast had also just returned from the forest carrying some large fruits for his dinner and Clear only drank the water Leinn had poured out of his drinking bottle.

“You wear enough Mana today, rest early”

Leinn finished his last dry meat and got up from his seat, then he entered his tent for a moment and went out and walked twenty meters from their tent.

He tied four long cloths of various colors on both his hands and feet, then a jet rune began to spread out and filled his body.

Aura continued her dinner while looking at Leinn who had already pulled out her sword and started swinging it down repeatedly.

He realized Leinn was using Compress like extra weights which increased his difficulty to move, and also used four pieces simultaneously.

Whoshis! Whoshis! Whosh...!

The end of the grass under the young man's feet continued to be blown away from him whenever the sword in his hand was swung down, buffeted by the gusts of strong wind it generated.

Aura could also feel a cold wind touch her face every time it happened.

Leinn repeated it several tens of times in a minute and let out one short breath. Both of his hands began to clasp his old blue sword even tighter.

“...alah”

He started swinging his sword several times faster and stronger than before.

...

“Fiuh~”

The half moon could be clearly seen in the night sky, illuminating the meadows and the encampments that were already almost noiseless.

Beasts from within the forest would not dare to go out to attack the encampment with dozens of humans before being forced to.

Most of the campers were asleep.

In that desolate meadow, a black-haired youth was seen lying down with a sword sheathed beside him, looking out of breath.

“Hah..”.

Leinn stabilized his breathing while being accompanied by Clear who did not require any sleep or rest.

He turned his head towards the two tents located 80 meters away from him.

Aura was already asleep in her tent with Rufus while the Gorilla Beast was already asleep next to the big bag inside her tent.

Leinn just lay down while looking at the view of the night sky filled with a sea of stars that were already familiar to him. Unknowingly he had reached into the pocket of his pants that kept his necklace.

He looked at the blue stone in his hand and a smile began to appear on his face.

“In a moment... soon we will be reunited with them”.

“Kyuu?”

“Haha, I will introduce you also later”

Clear only trembled in bewilderment and again spread his body over the grass.

Leinn finally managed to stabilize his breathing and returned to his feet, putting the necklace in his hand back into his pants pocket.

Mana began to flow into the four cloths on his body and runes spread out once again filling his body.

He started to swing his sword again and the sound of air being cut off could be heard clearly again, his two eyes looking forward like looking at the shadow of someone he was chasing.

“Please wait..”