New Incidents (1)
A little while later.
“Yeah, just keep drinking it all down like that.”
“……Mm.”
After I fed Aria the potion with the bluish glow, she seemed to be getting better too.
Fortunately, being a priestess meant the poison’s effects hadn’t hit her all that hard. And once I had her drink an antidote potent enough to work even on people who normally couldn’t be helped, she finally managed to neutralize the poison in her body.
I couldn’t heal Aria with divine power, but the priestess job let me cancel out some of it, at least.
“Hm. This one’s done.”
That left only one.
“Come to think of it, do you two think I’m a doctor or something?”
-Thunk!
“Gah?! A-ah, that hurts!”
I kicked Rain, who was lying on the ground.
“How bad is the wound? Feel like you’re about to die?”
Not only had he wandered off by himself to some weird place and made things annoying for everyone, but when I finally found him, he’d been attacked by some strange bastards and ended up with a hole punched through his stomach. It was nothing but a nuisance.
“I-I’m fine. I had some recovery medicine left from earlier, so I can still hold out.”
“Is that so? Then I don’t really need to use a scroll. Take care of the rest yourself.”
-Swish
“……Thank you.”
Still, I did pull out a few bottles of recovery potion and some clean bandages for him.
He happened to be out of treatment supplies, so Rain accepted them gratefully. He even remembered to thank me.
“So what are those things, anyway?”
Once things had settled down a bit, I checked to make sure there weren’t any other presences around us before speaking.
Where I pointed, I could see beastfolk bound tight with chains.
The ones already dead had been burned to ashes to erase all traces, and the ones I’d subdued were left alive like that.
Only, they weren’t conscious.
“……Those are the bastards who attacked our adventurers. Their clothes and tactics were exactly the same.”
Rain said through clenched teeth, looking furious.
“That’s why I asked who they were and why they attacked.”
I decided to hear the details from Rain.
1.
“……I don’t know the details, but I’m certain these guys are the ones who kidnapped the adventurers who came with us.”
“Hmm. So they’re kidnapping adventurers.”
After hearing Rain’s explanation, I more or less understood the situation.
Mysterious beastfolk were abducting people.
He’d gone to fetch water, and when he came back, all the adventurers who’d come with them were gone. Then they’d barely escaped after a surprise attack, only for those bastards to launch another ambush.
He’d tried to deal with it alone somehow, but in the end he’d been pushed back and in danger, and then I came along and saved him…….
-Pow!
I kicked Rain again.
“Gahh! W-why are you hitting me all of a sudden?!”
“Because you made me change clothes twice over those pathetic bastards.”
It was annoying.
I’d just changed into these clothes after treating the others, and then after going to fetch that idiot who’d been wandering around some strange place on his own, my clothes were filthy again.
Disgusting.
On top of that, there wasn’t even a place to wash up, so I had to use Clean magic. The problem was that Clean magic didn’t get rid of the gross feeling.
Sure, the body was clean. But it still felt filthy.
Did he have any idea how irritating that was?
“Hah. Be grateful to the bastard who put a hole in your stomach. You’re injured, so I’ll let it slide this time, but if you’d been healthy, I’d have beaten you until you weren’t.”
I had no choice but to change clothes one more time.
I could use Clean magic on my body, but unfortunately, cleaning clothes with it was difficult.
Actually, at this point I wasn’t even sure if my control was just bad or what, but if I used Clean magic while still wearing clothes, I’d end up witnessing the miracle of having my clothing erased along with the waste.
So it really does make things clean—just in a completely naked state.
Come to think of it, that wasn’t exactly wrong.
There really wasn’t much difference if the clothes themselves were made clean.
Anyway, I’d need to open my subspace and pull out new clothes…….
“Hm?”
Huh? Had I already changed them all?
No matter how much I searched, there weren’t any clothes small enough; only the ones I normally wore were left.
That was a problem.
If I put on my usual clothes, they’d slide right off, and they were so huge I couldn’t even wear them like a robe.
If I tried to wear them now, they’d probably drag on the ground, and walking through a forest like this would just be a pain in the ass.
Going around naked would be the most comfortable, of course, but unlike in the Twilight Forest, I wasn’t alone here…….
Guess I can’t help it. This is all I’ve got left.
-Swish
So I decided to change into “that outfit” for now.
The clothes I’d been wearing when I first ended up in this body, the so-called Dress of the Demon God—
“Aaaah?!“
“What the hell is your problem now?”
……Just as I was about to put it on, Rain suddenly screamed again beside me. At this point, I was starting to wonder if his throat hurt more than the wound in his stomach.
“D-don’t just start taking your clothes off in front of people! Th-there’s, um……. everything’s visible!”
“Oh, I see. Then should I just pluck out those two eyes?”
“No, that’s fine. I’ll close my eyes and turn around.”
He should’ve just done that from the start.
And honestly, by now, showing my naked body a few times didn’t really matter all that much.
It’s not like the men I’d met even felt like men to me, and I hadn’t run into any women who seemed like proper potential partners, so to be honest, humans just felt like slightly smarter chimpanzees.
-Rustle!
Anyway, I changed into the clothes I’d first worn.
Yeah, the size really is too big now, but…….
Then the outfit gave off a faint red glow, shrinking itself until it fit this body properly.
Maybe it had some extra function like that because it was made from rare materials that were hard to get. Could be it had uses beyond what I’d known from the game.
“Done. You can open your eyes now.”
“Ah, yes. Understood.”
Not bad.
-Crackle!
This dress was one of the highest-tier defensive armors in Novel Online.
Just its functions alone numbered in the dozens, and its base defense was higher than most metal armor of the same level.
“……That outfit?”
“It’s what I was wearing when I first met you all. The size can be adjusted however I want. Not bad, right?”
It also boosted my stats and increased my mana, but the strange thing was that whether I wore it or not, the weight hardly felt different.
Though it does expose a lot of my chest and thighs.
There was a saying that exposure and defense were proportional.
“Yes, it suits you very well.”
“Then that’s that. I didn’t particularly like wearing it because it stood out too much, but right now it should be fine.”
Still, the design was beautiful, so I didn’t mind.
This outfit suited the character named Sian perfectly, and since I’d spent time and money upgrading its options, the clothes I’d worn up to now in this world were basically scraps by comparison.
◈ Raises natural HP and MP regeneration by 10% while worn.
◈ Increases base defense by 25%.
Even now, I still thought its options were absurdly good.
The cooldown’s gotten longer. It used to be ten minutes in the game.
Of course, with no HP or MP numbers in this world, I had no idea exactly how these effects would apply here. But there was no way they’d just be ignored.
The other items have all worked fine so far.
At the same time, once I put on the dress, I could clearly feel my stats rising.
Even though I was wearing it, my body actually felt lighter, and while my base abilities had weakened overall, I still felt like I could draw out about two-thirds of my original strength now.
Probably if I wore this armor in a normal state, I’d become even stronger. A little unnecessary, honestly…….
“Hah. All right, then this is settled. How’s your condition? Can you move?”
With the preparations done, the only problem was whether these guys could still move or not.
“Ah, I’m fine. If I need to move, I can—urgh…….”
Rain tried to stand as if he were all right, then clutched his wound and sat back down.
It must have been deeper than I’d thought, because his recovery was slow.
“Don’t push yourself. Those two haven’t fully purged the poison yet either; I only neutralized it.”
“T-then what do we do? Are they okay?”
At this point, it was impossible to fully cure the Hydra poison. Even if I used a complete recovery scroll, there was no guarantee the abnormal status would clear.
“No need to worry. They won’t die.”
All I’d done for now was neutralize the poison by removing it from their bodies, so the rest had to be left to them overcoming it naturally.
“……At the very least, they should wake up by morning, but I don’t know whether they’ll be able to move freely.”
“I see…….”
Come to think of it, something was odd.
“This is the blood of a Hydra, a monster at level 80 that drops at a certain rate when defeated.”
At first, I thought the poison used by those beastfolk was from a normal Hydra—the level 80 kind the bandits Stran had called in also used.
But when I checked a little later, I found that the poison in those bastards’ bodies was something higher-grade.
More than that, it was from a fairly high-level monster above level 100.
Black Swamp Hydra – Lv. 120
※ HP: 3.5 million / MP: 3,500
▶ A giant snake that lives in swamps. Its blood and saliva are all used as potent poison.
And the boss monster that ruled over them was a Swamp Hydra with a level of 250. So how in the world had lowlife beastfolk like these managed to get poison from creatures that lived in packs?
That wasn’t the only strange thing, either.
I walked over to the beastfolk I’d just captured.
-Crackle!
The target is under a Silence Curse.
Black sparks flared, rejecting my approach.
I could break a curse like this if I wanted to, but if I did, there was a good chance these guys’ brains would burn out.
I thought I’d get some useful information out of them. What a shame.
The Silence Curse was one that locked away the target’s consciousness.
It was a technique only usable by someone capable of fairly advanced black magic.
That meant it couldn’t be properly removed unless the caster lifted it themselves, or a priest with saint-level divine power came along.
And those black chains weren’t even mine. Once I neutralized them, they appeared on their own and bound the bastards.
If I forcibly removed the curse, I’d just be smashing it by brute force, and the burden on the target would be too great.
Annoying, but there was nothing I could do except leave them like that.
“Sian-sama?! Are you all right?!”
“I’m fine. It’s just rejecting my approach.”
So then, what the hell was going on?
High-level monster poison, a high-level black mage’s curse, and beastfolk abducting adventurers for some mysterious reason.
Honestly, I don’t really care how this turns out…….
But right now, it didn’t matter much what happened.
“Sian-sama!”
“……Huh? No. It’s nothing.”
For a second, my body swayed.
I’m getting sleepy.
No, it was more accurate to say I was getting very sleepy.
Before I knew it, it had grown pretty late, and my strength was draining out of my body on its own while my consciousness kept fading.
-Thud!
Just as I was about to collapse, Rain rushed over and caught me.
“Mm…….”
“Are you all right?! Why did you suddenly—wait, don’t tell me you got poisoned while treating the poison or something?”
“No, that’s not it. I’m just a little sleepy……”
Actually, of everything I’d seen so far, this might have been the biggest problem with this child body.
“Just for a bit, I’ll close my eyes for just a little while……. When morning comes……. wake me…….”
-Thump!
“S-Sian-sama?!”
This body absolutely had to go to sleep at night.
……Yeah.
And even if someone messed with me while I was asleep, I wouldn’t wake up. Apparently even when Louis blasted me with her strongest breath, I hadn’t stirred.
Was it because my body had gotten younger?
I figured that had to be why I’d ended up with this absurd extra sleeping time, too.
And so I fell asleep in the middle of the forest.