Chapter 23: Blue Planet of Another World
Fortunately, Mary had generously offered to give me the water bear.
She showed the confidence that even a mid-grade monster that barely qualified could be caught with just a thought.
It didn’t seem like Emily, the Watcher, had noticed the value of the water bear at all.
It was fortunate that it hadn’t caught the eye of other hunters first. If it had, she would have gone straight to the research institute instead of being here.
“Tiss, isn’t it lacking? With just this big guy, I’m a bit short, but do you need anything else for other monsters?”
There were a few that I wanted, but it wasn’t urgent.
Using the favor relationship to extract the essence was something a subordinate would do.
Here, rather, it would be better to do something that would make them more favorable to develop this relationship.
“It’s fine. I like to eat a lot, so one is enough. Thank you.”
“Eigo, how impressive.”
A soft, warm feeling suddenly hit me. It was Mary’s chest.
[Kyaa! W-what, you startled me, why are you hugging me all of a sudden?]
It was more than I thought.
Mary was the type that didn’t show much on the surface.
No, no, not now, it’s not the time to be amazed.
“Um… Mary?”
Click!
At that moment, Emily’s device flashed at a good timing.
Emily had an expression as if she had properly caught the bug.
It seemed like the earlier exposure had subtly annoyed her.
“Ah.”
Mary, who had gently hugged me, realized what she had done and hurriedly pulled back.
“Ah, sorry. I unconsciously… because I thought you were like a little sister… sorry, if it was uncomfortable, I’ll apologize.”
“I-it’s fine. It could happen. Well.”
It would be better if it was good.
Shan was looking at Mary with meaningful eyes, but she seemed to have just been surprised.
“Emily!!! Delete it right now!”
“Delete it right now? Really…?”
“Then really, give it to me like this!”
“Huhu, Mary. Do you think she thinks she’s in a position where she can be that strong right now?”
With just a finger flick, Emily would send this photo to Dorothy, and Mary had no choice but to fidget her feet.
“W-what should I do to make you delete it?”
“Hmm, I’ll think about it based on what Mary does. It’ll take a while.”
“Ya!”
It seemed she had no intention of deleting it immediately.
Mary, who had been bantering with Emily, blushed and said she didn’t need to refuse formally and would ask one more time.
[At this point, it should be enough, right?]
I thought so too.
The flirting ends here.
“Um… then.”
I gathered my courage and said, slightly hesitating as if to say the main purpose of coming here to Mary.
“Can I hunt monsters too?”
“Hunting monsters…?”
Mary’s gaze naturally turned to Emily.
An A-rank wandering hunter.
Asking her to openly commit illegal acts in front of the Watcher Emily.
It was as crazy as robbing a bank in front of a hero.
“Are you sure it’s okay to ask that openly with a hunter right next to you?”
“I saw nothing. It’s just, snakes have bad eyesight~”
Emily added that she didn’t need to worry about Tiss’s skills and that she would do her part well.
“Then, it’s fortunate, but… thinking about it, you said you had business with me. Yeah, this is the main topic. Since I can’t become a hunter at a young age, I understand, but… Aaaaa! I really don’t know about the aftermath? Really?”
Mary scratched her head and eventually allowed me to accompany her in hunting monsters.
.
.
.
After receiving Mary’s permission, we decided to first absorb the water bear.
Since the creature was already dead, the freshness would decrease over time, and if it started to rot, we couldn’t extract a complete essence.
We had to extract the essence as soon as possible while it was fresher.
There was a problem for a moment: to reach the nucleus of the water bear, we had to dive into the huge body.
“That’s something I can help with.”
Mary pulled blood from her arm and explained her ability to the floating blood in the air.
Like how she got the name Bloody Mary when she fell to villainy, Mary’s ability was related to ‘blood’.
In addition to simply weaponizing blood to fight, she injected blood filled with oxygen to allow long breathing without needing to breathe, and even shaped some of the blood into flipper forms upon my request and attached them.
Clack.
The hardened blood was hard enough to dig into one layer of the water bear’s hard shell.
I asked her to wrap the surroundings with black blackout curtains so that no one else would see the absorption process.
When I asked if she was really okay since I felt like I was indebted, Mary said that as the benefactor of her little sister, she couldn’t do something like this and told me not to worry.
Later, when hunting monsters together, I would repay her by giving her the side that didn’t need absorption.
“Then, I’ll go in.”
[One, two… wait, Tiss timing…!]
With a pong sound, I dove into the body of the water bear.
[Ugh, gurgle.]
“Shan, calm down. Nothing will suffocate.”
[…Eh? Yeah? Ehehe.]
Passing through the hard outer shell layer, I entered deep inside the water bear.
The water bear, like the creature modeled after a water bear, didn’t have complex organs like a heart and brain.
It breathed with the entire body, and instead of a brain, a nerve cluster took over the function.
[Right here, and forward straight.]
In the darkness, I dug into the flesh guided only by senses and Shan’s orders.
After swimming in for a long time following Shan’s guidance.
[Th-there it is. A little more… a little more…]
Thump!
[It’s done! We did it, Tiss!]
We successfully reached the nerve cluster inside the water bear.
Just like extracting essence by triggering the heart of other monsters, we started to crystallize the essence by gripping the nerve cluster, the core of the water bear.
Unlike before, we could now do it skillfully.
This was a friend we might not see again if this opportunity passed.
We needed maximum gain.
With the will to absorb everything without leaving even a single scale, we absorbed everything.
Swoosh.
The huge body of the water bear started to be sucked into us like a whirlpool, and before long, it transformed into an essence the size of a fist.
Hoo.
Since it had been dead for a while, there was some loss in the essence, but it was still quite excellent.
With this, I could forget about the essence value for a while.
After the extraction of the water bear’s essence was complete,
“Mary.”
“Mm?”
“By any chance, is there any troublemaker?”
Now it was time to prove my ability for hunting.
.
.
.
Poacher.
Of course, not ordinary plant and animal poaching, but those who hunt ‘monsters’.
Although monsters are terrifying creatures, wild ones that live under their own territory rather than monsters moving under the dominion of calamities are not much different from dangerous animals.
They form a unique ecosystem under the domain created by calamities.
And now, we are entering the forest to hunt one monster.
“Are you really okay? No matter how well you know about monsters…”
“It’s fine.”
She was called a genius in monster studies at a young age.
Since we had already agreed in advance to use this setting, under Emily’s guarantee, I was searching for a hunting ground outside the cluster with Mary.
What I asked for was one thing.
To prove my ability and to let them know if there was a troublesome creature in the cluster.
At the right time, I heard that there was a troublesome monster among Mary and the poachers.
It was a plunderer monster.
After listening to Mary’s explanation about the monster, I headed to the scene where the monster was sighted.
“I found it!”
After searching the surroundings, I found traces of the monster.
Feces, fur, and traces of rubbing against trees.
Everything matched exactly the information I knew from the game.
I could use this.
From now on, I will be the guiding star for you.
“Look carefully here.”
I pointed to the size and depth of the footprints and explained to Mary step by step.
The claw marks were wide and deep, with small clumps of dirt rising between them.
It meant the creature had significant weight and would unleash sudden strong power when hunting. Then, I added more clues by rubbing the trace of rubbing against trees with my hand.
“Look at the height and angle where the tree bark is peeled here. It seems like it rubbed its shoulder, so the creature’s height would reach about my chest level. With a body length of about 5 meters, it’s at least a mid-grade monster or higher.”
I also analyzed the feces estimated to be from the creature.
It was dried meat chunks, broken bone pieces, and clumps of fur mixed in.
“It mainly eats meat, but there are many traces of gulping it down hurriedly. It’s likely it was stressed or ate in a hurry. It’s hard to leave such traces after eating prey it hunted itself with its own territory. Probably, it mostly relied on theft rather than hunting.”
“Indeed, the unidentified monster always ate only the bait of our poachers’ catches or traps.”
Mary nodded in understanding.
The cluster was estimated to be troubled by an unidentified mid-grade monster.
It avoided traps while constantly stealing or stealing hunters’ prey.
It seemed to understand human hunting methods and played a trick of sucking out only the bait of the traps set by the poachers.
It enjoyed hunting by secretly striking from behind without colliding head-on with strength.
This kind of creature was the most annoying for a poacher.
If it kept being gnawed from behind, even if the cluster people succeeded in hunting, they would end up having their prey stolen by another monster.
“And you said it had a bad smell, right?”
I paused briefly and shifted my gaze from the footprints and feces to the marks on the trees.
If the fur left everywhere was black with a reddish tint, and the whole body emitted an unbearable, disgusting, dirty, vicious, and rotten stench.
The answer came.
“It’s likely a Bargr.”
“Wait a minute, don’t they usually travel in packs like wolves?”
Mary knew what kind of monster it was.
“Yes. Bargr originally has the habit of traveling in groups. Usually in family units. But this creature acts alone as if it were a tiger.”
“Then, don’t tell me.”
“Yes, it’s probably a variant that has evolved to be able to think with its head.”
My fingertip pointed to the interval of the footprints.
Long, loose footsteps, straight-line movement path.
A black beast like a Bargr familiar with group life wouldn’t usually move this way. It was an individualistic behavior pattern adapted to independent living.
“It’s likely it evolved to be able to survive alone.”
“Especially a intelligent variant.”
“Don’t worry. Even if it gets smart, it’s still an animal brain.”
I tapped my finger on the small white hair.
Even if it was a variant, the nature of the species doesn’t change easily.
No matter how cunningly this creature calculated, the instinctive habits and patterns would become weaknesses in the end.
Unless it becomes a complete personality like Shan, the monster’s nature never changes.
It’s only natural when you think that even humans find it very hard to change long-standing habits and customs.
“The creature won’t cross the boundary where other monsters stay. If the territory is simultaneously invaded, it will track it to the end.”
Poachers don’t poke every area.
They don’t enter places where there are super-grade monsters that defy their territory.
By checking the area map known to the poachers, we can easily know where the creature actually operates.
“Now, what we need is simple. If the monster has adapted to stealing the poachers’ traps and bait, we can use the opposite of that habit to do fake hunting.”
The poachers try hunting with the assumption of failure for the first time.
To catch the thief from the beginning.
At first, they prepare traps and a slightly smaller bait as usual.
“Since the guy who has stolen many times before believes he is smart, he will think this time will succeed in the same way.”
A Bargr that gained confidence from one or two successes would naturally become greedy for larger prey.
And by catching it with the multi-traps specially prepared for the approaching creature, it would end there.
Mary didn’t know how detailed to this point and her face lit up.
“Indeed... it makes sense. I’ll call the leaders right away and explain this operation to them too.”
The next day.
Mary set up the operation based on my plan, and
“I got it!!!”
“Waaahaaaa!!!”
Finally, we succeeded in hunting the variant Bargr that had been troubling them for a long time.