Hulemy fixes the transfer circle once again but when she, Boxxo, and Lammis attempt to fast travel again, they end up in the Dark Forest Stratum rather than Clearflow Lake as intended. The trio soon discover that Kerioyl didn’t put the tamper spell on the transfer circles but rather on Boxxo first. That way, any transfer circle Boxxo attempts to use malfunction. It’s a clever trick that demonstrates how much of a problem Kerioyl poses for our heroes. Hulemy is able to remove the spell with ease but the transfer circle in the Dark Forest will need time to recharge so the gang is stuck there for now.
Since they’re stuck, the gang heads over to the Dark Forest village, only to find that many of its residents have been turned into trees. They then find Shui and Hevee and join them and the village’s hunters in fending off various plant-based fiends. After the fight, Hevee explains that he and Shui ended up at Dark Forest after the transfer circles first malfunctioned and many of the villagers were transformed into trees by the respective Stratum Lord. While the curse will be lifted once the Stratum Lord is defeated, that’s easier said than done as the fiend is an giant tree, far bigger than anything Boxxo and co. has encountered before.
While helping out the village, the gang meets a weapon shopkeeper who offers to craft a new weapon for Lammis. While Lammis thinks she’s doing just fine with her fists, she and her friends nevertheless pay the weapon shop a visit. There. Lammis does a strength test with some magic orbs that get increasingly heavy and unsurprisingly, her Blessing makes even the heaviest one as light as a feather. This gives the shopkeeper some inspiration on what weapon he should create for Lammis. Assuming this isn’t a one-off gag or anything, I’m curious what the shopkeeper comes up with.
Afterwards, Boxxo asks Hevee and Shui about the stratum’s director, a friendly darkness-based monster named Director Dark, whose name is on the nose but it’s also in line with the other directors’ names so what else is new? Hevee and Shui are a bit reluctant to introduce Director Dark, which made me more curious about the guy as those two almost never agree on anything. Sure enough, Dark appears to be a nice guy but he also strikes himself as a comedian so he often tries to crack jokes that hardly land for the other characters. Boxxo compares him to a really bad manzai performance, which I don’t entirely understand since manzai is a two-person act but I digress. Regardless, the part where Boxxo transforms into a vending machine that plays manzai videos to humble Dark is pretty good.
Funnily enough, while everyone is waiting for the transfer circle to recharge, Director Bear arrives with Kikoyu, Botan, Kuroyata, Shimelai, and Yumite anyway. Apparently, Shimelai can redirect the flow of energy in the transfer circles to restore fast travel. Now that help has arrived, it’s time to find the Netherlord’s ally in the stratum and it’s a very clever plan to boot. Kikoyu and Boxxo hand out food for everyone and thanks to Kikoyu’s mind reading abilities, she discovers which villager is in cahoots with the Netherlord and has Boxxo snap a picture. The gang then capture the villager and have Hevee interrogate her. With Hevee’s sensory magic, he easily tricks the village into thinking that she’s talking to the Netherlord and gets her to spill the beans. Of course this is Hevee we’re talking about so he of course uses his disguise to get the villager’s shoes (I’m starting to think this man has a loose definition of consent) but other than that, the plan works without a hitch.
Watch Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon on Crunchyroll
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