The Cocatrice's Nest
The expressions on my party members' faces were a sight to behold.
"...Is that even possible?"
"That's the craziest thing I've heard so far."
The two alchemists stared at me with open disbelief. I'd been just as shocked when I first saw it online. Does this actually work? But it does. That's how roguelikes are. They're designed to allow for this kind of interaction.
"Hajun! The spiders are coming! We need to hurry!" Bori shouted urgently.
The cavemen warriors had already raised their weapons, ready to charge at any moment. Their tension had reached its peak. Even Bori's efforts to hold them back were reaching their limit.
Time to get this started.
"Maya. Do you have any Fleshification Potions on you?"
Maya blinked her eyes wide and tilted her head.
"Yes, I do have some, but..."
"Get them ready. Everyone, this way!"
Bori was directing the warriors. I carried Roa's statue on my back while Arin carried Haneul. We ran toward the Cocatrice's nest.
In the distance, I could see a massive swarm of giant spiders crawling toward us. I shouted at Maya.
"Maya! We need to break through here!"
Maya's face was pale as she looked at the blocked Cocatrice nest entrance and shook her head.
"It's impossible! Even with a transmutation circle, it would take forever to break through!"
Of course it would if we used a transmutation circle. But I had no intention of using one.
"Not that! The Fleshification Potion!"
"...Huh?"
Fleshification Potion. A potion that turns solid stone into chunks of meat. It was inspired by the Stone to Flesh spell from the D&D series. If you got covered in it, boulders would turn into flesh. At first glance, it seemed like something you'd use to cure petrification curses. In Dungeon Overseer, that's exactly how it was used.
But with a little creativity, it could be used for something else entirely.
"What about Roa!"
"We're all going to die anyway! Does that even matter right now!"
"...Understood. I'll throw it!"
Maya pulled a bottle of thick, milky-white potion from her bag. The target was the entrance to the Cocatrice's nest. The creature had used its petrifying breath to completely seal the opening.
Now we were going to punch a hole through it.
Maya hurled the potion at the dead end and shouted,
"Potion Explosion!"
The Fleshification Potion spun through the air, reacting with the alchemist's mana to trigger a chain reaction. The flask began to bubble violently before exploding with a deafening roar.
Boom!
The Fleshification Potion wasn't defective. The moment it touched the solid stone wall, the rock transformed into a mushy mass of flesh.
Now it was my turn.
I cast a spell at the wall of meat.
"Kopf Raat!"
Corpse Corrosion. A spell that rapidly decays the flesh of the dead to produce toxic gas. The wall of meat reacted to the necromancy spell and began to rot away at an alarming rate. The barrier crumbled, releasing a vile stench and poisonous fumes.
"It's open!"
This was the essence of pseudo-tunneling. If you didn't have a direct way to dig a hole, you could combine several techniques like this to create one. The opening was wide enough for a person to pass through comfortably.
"Going in!"
We pushed through the hazy toxic fog and slipped through the hole in the wall.
"Cough, cough!"
Several cavemen coughed in pain. They seemed to have been poisoned by the toxic gas from the decaying corpse. But the alchemists would take care of them later. No need to worry.
I sharpened my senses and scanned the inside of the nest. Suddenly entering a dark space made it hard to see, but my ears were wide open. A clear sound reached me.
A spine-chilling noise that made every hair on my body stand on end.
Cheep, cheep!
"There it is."
I almost screamed.
"Cocatrice chicks!"
I was so happy I nearly screamed.
The Cocatrice's offspring—also known as chickatrices—were monsters that resembled baby chicks. They were about thirty centimeters tall. Small, fragile, and covered in soft, fluffy down. They looked incredibly squishy and, honestly, kind of cute right now.
But the reason I still called them monsters was because the petrification curse flowed through them as well. The petrification curse was an innate mystical ability. Even though they were only thirty-centimeter-tall chicks, anything they touched would turn to stone.
"Everyone, stay back!" I warned.
If a few more of us turned into statues now, it would be a real headache. Carrying Roa around was already exhausting enough. If the muscular cavemen turned to stone too, we'd have the heaviest luggage imaginable.
Cheep...
The cavemen didn't understand my warning, but they seemed to catch on from my tone. They didn't approach the chickatrices. Conversely, the chickatrices didn't charge at them either.
The chickatrices had breathed in the thick toxic fog covering the floor and become poisoned. That was why they looked so lifeless and weak. We were incredibly lucky.
One of the chickatrices gasped for air before suddenly collapsing with a thud. Having just been born, they were extremely vulnerable to poison.
"What do we do now?" Maya asked worriedly.
The cavemen had already turned the cave into a fortress and were preparing for a last stand. These warmongers really were consistent.
"We fight, of course."
It was an obvious answer. Maya's expression darkened. The party members were exhausted, and they had no more potions left. They probably thought engaging in battle was impossible.
So I prepared a gift for Maya.
Cheep!
I kicked one of the staggering chickatrices, and it died with a soft thud. I kicked aside the obstructing chickatrices, killing them with my feet as I searched the nest. Soon, I found a white egg covered in dirt.
When I held it out, Maya tilted her head in confusion.
"Take it."
"What is this?"
I explained further for Maya, who still couldn't grasp it.
"It's a weapon."
That's right. Cocatrices are born with the petrification curse flowing through them. It's not an acquired ability—it's innate. The eggs of a Cocatrice are also imbued with the petrification curse. If you cracked one open thinking you'd make a fried egg and touched it, you'd turn to stone on the spot.
While Cocatrices were insanely dangerous monsters, their byproducts made for incredibly efficient weapons. A Cocatrice nest was essentially an armory.
Maya's pupils trembled.
"How do I... use this?"
I shrugged.
"Look. The shell is hard, right? And it's filled with liquid inside, right? So what should you do?"
A hard container filled with liquid. Maya swallowed dryly. This was essentially the same as an alchemist's potion. You primitive spider bastards. Open your eyes wide and watch carefully. This is the final legacy left behind by the master of the dungeon.
"There are a few of them coming from outside. Let's throw it and see."
The giant spiders were struggling to squeeze through the narrow passage into the Cocatrice nest. Maya shook the Cocatrice egg like she was pulling the pin on a fragmentation grenade, then hurled it toward the giant spiders.
"Po-Potion Explosion!"
Technically it should be Egg Explosion, but whatever. It didn't matter. The liquid reacting to the alchemist's magic had begun to boil furiously.
The Cocatrice egg rolled under the giant spiders' feet and exploded with a crunching sound.
Kiiiiiiik!
The spiders let out bizarre screams as they became paralyzed. The spiders covered in the Cocatrice egg began turning to stone under the effect of the petrification curse.
I picked up one of the chickatrice corpses lying on the floor.
"Everyone wearing gloves?"
Gloves were essential to avoid touching them with bare skin. A thirty-centimeter chickatrice corpse. It felt like I was holding one of those stress-relief chickens they sold at Daiso.
The caveman warriors, who had been watching my actions closely, discarded their stone clubs and picked up the chickatrice corpses instead. I swung the chickatrice around like a raw chicken and shouted,
"Sweep them all away!"
Explorers and cavemen warriors armed with dead Cocatrice chicks burst out of the cave like a fountain. The giant spiders were helpless before the petrification curse.
Thirty minutes later, exactly fifteen spider statues stood in front of the Cocatrice nest, creating a beautiful sculpture park.
We accepted the cavemen's invitation and headed toward their underground tribe. After everything that had happened, we had become comrades who had faced life and death together. The fact that we could easily earn their favor thanks to the Dungeon Seeker's translation skills helped a lot too.
"Uuuuuuuuooooooooh~"
The cavemen marched while singing songs of victory. After walking for about an hour, we arrived in front of primitive huts that looked suitable for a savage tribe. An old man with a bent back came out from the entrance to greet us.
When a caveman warrior stepped forward, the old man said something. I didn't understand the primitive language, but from the tone, it didn't seem like they were exchanging pleasantries.
"What's going on?"
"That old man is the chief of this tribe. He's saying it was reckless to go out and hunt a Cocatrice."
But as the conversation continued, the old man spoke less and less while the warrior's voice grew louder. The chief had feared the Cocatrice hunt, but the warrior had succeeded in killing one. In any world, the winner takes all. The warrior had challenged it and won. In the end, the chief seemed to accept it.
"Oh. They just mentioned us."
"What are they saying?"
"He's saying we can't trust outsiders... Wait a moment."
Bori scampered forward on his short legs. After he said a few words, all the cavemen's gazes turned toward him. Bori used his exceptional eloquence to persuade the cavemen.
"They asked if we were thieves trying to steal their sacred relic, so I told them those guys were already dead."
"Nice work."
The chief acknowledged the explorers and allowed them into the village. We were given a decent tent and time to tend to our wounds.
Maya and Arin set up a makeshift operating table and laid Haneul on it. Haneul had already lost consciousness thanks to the anesthetic Arin had administered.
"Sorry for what I said earlier."
"About what?"
"That you packed too much useless stuff. Turns out it was actually useful."
I said this while looking down at Haneul, who was sleeping soundly. Arin let out a small snort of laughter.
"Want me to be honest? I didn't even know I had anesthetic in my bag. It just turned up when I dug through it."
Maya picked up a sharp knife made of obsidian. Arin and Doran assisted. With a bit of surgery, healing potions containing elixir, and various spells, Haneul's wounds vanished as if they had never been there.
"Whew. Saved one person, at least," Arin muttered as she wiped away sweat.
"What about Roa?"
"...We'll have to return to Sokoban as quickly as possible. Once we reach the Alchemist Guild, we can get our hands on a Fleshification Potion."
Wounds could be healed easily enough, but undoing a curse was a complicated process. At the very least, we'd need a Fleshification Potion to even attempt it. The good news was that turning to stone didn't mean instant death. If we returned quickly, we could still save Roa. Speed was the most important factor.
"Hajun."
The tent flap opened, and Bori poked his head inside.
"The chief is looking for Miss Arin."
We glanced at each other for a moment. No one seemed to know what this was about.
"Me?"
"He mentioned something about the blessing of the Queen of Fire."
Doran's eyes widened.
"Miss Arin blessed the warriors!"
I couldn't follow the conversation. What the hell is the Queen of Fire, you damn nerds?
Bori shrugged and explained.
"It means one who conveys the will of the sun god Qwha'x. This Red Tent tribe still holds onto the faith of the sun god."
"So the primitives think Arin is..."
"They see her as a divine representative sent from the heavens. After all, she did help defeat the Cocatrice. The Cocatrice is said to be the messenger of the Earth Mother Goddess Eshgal. The sun god has defeated the earth god."
I looked at Arin in utter disbelief. That thing... a divine messenger?
Arin snorted and crossed her arms.
"How typical of ignorant primitives. Alchemy is an ancient art, not some divine power."
Even as she said that, she looked secretly pleased.
"I didn't want to meet the cavemen, but if they're calling for me, I suppose I have no choice. Shall I go see them once?"
...I really wanted to smack her.