The Praying Mantis (1)
“Hmm...”
“Mmm...”
A few days after leaving the druid village, Lev and I stood in front of the request bulletin board at the adventurers’ guild.
“The requests are...”
“Almost all gone...”
Just as Lev said, the board was nearly wiped clean. The medicinal herbs we’d brought from the druid village had sold out long ago. All that remained was a single one-time-use herb that no one would take.
“This… isn’t this actually a scam?”
“…Then just throw it away.”
“No way! You never know! It might be real!”
“What do you even want me to do…”
Anyway, the pocket change we got from selling the herbs had been split between meals and giving a little to the elders we were staying with. Before we knew it, the money was gone.
“There’s a request hunter these days, you see…”
While we were staring at the board, the receptionist who came to post new requests explained the reason.
“A request hunter?”
“Yes. Some crazy bastard from the Eastern Continent… He walks around with a whole string of women following him and clears requests at an insane pace. Total lunatic…”
“A whole string of women…”
I turned my head to look at Lev.
“…Staring at me with envy won’t change anything.”
“Yeah…”
The receptionist continued with clear disgust in her voice.
“Sigh, don’t be jealous. That guy rips the heads off bandits without even blinking. He’s a total psycho… The women sticking to him probably aren’t right in the head either.”
“Ah…”
Well, traveling with a maniac would be pretty weird…
“…I am not a maniac.”
Lev, who had noticed my gaze, spoke up.
“And this person here is your companion?”
“Ah, this is your first time meeting her. This is my companion, Lev.”
I introduced the receptionist and Lev to each other.
“Lev, this is the adventurers’ guild receptionist I mentioned before.”
“…Nice to meet you.”
“Oh my! What a lovely voice~”
Even though Lev was wrapped up from head to toe, the receptionist complimented her warmly, posted the new request on the board, and left.
“…She’s a veteran.”
“A veteran?”
“Yes. She saw me like this and didn’t ask a single question, assuming there must be a reason.”
“Really…?”
Lev pointed at herself, completely covered in fabric.
Wow… she really was a veteran. Of course. There’s no way a receptionist at a guild this big wouldn’t be seasoned.
“Investigation of an unidentified creature? How about this one?”
“Hmm… go ask about it.”
Lev handed me the new request the receptionist had just posted.
“Me…?”
“Who else is going to do it?”
“W-well… that’s true. Wait for me outside. I’ll grab this or something else that looks decent.”
“Understood.”
Lev left the guild immediately. I took the new request form and approached the receptionist.
“Excuse me, miss…”
“Ah, that’s a permanent request. Could you put it back up? I’ll explain it to you.”
“Sorry about that…”
I put the request back on the board and returned to the counter.
“So… about this unidentified creature…”
The details described an investigation request for an unidentified creature that had appeared in the northern forest.
“Lately, there’s been a literal unidentified creature showing up in the northern forest.”
“The northern forest…?”
“Yes. It’s mainly used as a trade route between the northern cities, but merchants and adventurers keep running into this creature. It’s been a real headache.”
Wait… there were multiple forests?
“Um… exactly where is the northern forest…?”
“Oh! This must be your first time in the Central Continent!”
“Haha…”
Well… she wasn’t wrong.
“Our city is surrounded by forests on all sides. For convenience, we just call them the east, west, south, and north forests.”
“Then the forest where we gathered herbs last time was…”
“The southern forest. That’s where most beginner adventurers go.”
“What about the east and west?”
Since Lev said she didn’t know the Central Continent very well either, gathering information like this would be useful.
“The western forest connects to the Imperial capital… The eastern one is just a normal forest. It’s also used as a road to other cities.”
“I see…”
…It’s simpler than I thought.
“Anyway, I’d like to hear a description of that unidentified creature…”
“Right, that’s what I was getting to! Based on the testimonies we’ve received so far…”
The receptionist pulled out some documents and began reading the survivors’ statements.
“The reports say it’s extremely ferocious, moves freely through the treetops, has green scales, yellow eyes, and almost always shoots something from above. It’s hard to see at night, and its voice echoes throughout the entire forest… That’s about it.”
“It talks?”
If it talks… could it be a person?
“Sometimes it sounds like a beast’s cry, and other times it sounds like a human voice…”
“Does that even make sense?”
“I know, right…”
What the hell? A person? A beast? Or… maybe a person raising a beast? Or perhaps…
『There’s also the possibility it’s a druid who ran away. They can transform into beasts, after all.』
I gave a small nod at Momo’s words.
“That’s all the information we’ve gathered so far. If you head to the northern forest and bring back any kind of useful intel, that’ll be enough.”
“Then… the reward is really…”
I recalled the amount written on the request form.
“Yes! Ten silver coins for any information at all!”
“Ten silver coins…!”
We currently only had one copper coin. Ten silver coins in this situation was an absolute fortune.
“It’s not something to get too excited about. Normal rewards scale with the danger level… A lot of people have already died because of this creature.”
The receptionist spoke with clear concern, but I just smiled like it was no big deal.
“It’s fine. I’ve already survived some truly insane battlefields…”
“Ah, I see…”
Hmm… her reaction is pretty lukewarm.
“Well then, I’ll be going…”
Feeling a bit deflated, I left the guild.
“You’re back.”
Lev was waiting in front of the guild. I proudly announced that I had taken the investigation request.
“Ten silver coins! Ten!”
“It’ll probably be dangerous… but the return is solid.”
“Exactly! We really need to start making money now!”
“Well, we survived in the middle of a zombie horde… At the very least, we probably won’t die.”
“Then let’s go right now! It’s in the northern forest!”
And so we headed toward the northern forest.
“So, this unidentified creature. What exactly did they say it was?”
“Um… it climbs trees, shoots things, sometimes sounds like a person talking, and sometimes like a beast howling?”
“…What the hell is that?”
“I don’t know either! That’s exactly what the receptionist told me!”
“The first things that come to mind are… a chimera? Or maybe an experiment? Those seem like the most plausible options…”
Lev listed off several possibilities based on the information I’d given her.
“If it’s some kind of organization… then maybe…”
“We can’t rule out the possibility of black mages either…”
Damn it. Black mages here too? Why do those bastards keep popping up everywhere?
“Still, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions without evidence.”
“I know…”
After walking for quite a while, we finally arrived at the entrance of the northern forest.
“Why is it so far…”
“Because it’s the northern one. The inn we’re staying at is in the west, and the adventurers’ guild is in the central district.”
The forest somehow felt dark and eerie.
“The sun’s already setting… Let’s get in and out quickly.”
“So that’s why it’s so dark…”
“…? Stop muttering to yourself and hurry up.”
Lev entered the forest first, urging me along.
Inside, the tall trees created an indescribable atmosphere.
“Something feels… um… off.”
“What feels off? We were surrounded by forest just a few days ago.”
“No, the vibe is completely different…”
The forest where the druid village had been was filled with bright-colored trees and glowing insects, giving it a mystical feel. This forest, however, had even taller trees than the southern one. The branches and leaves were so dense they blocked out the light, creating a dark, damp atmosphere.
“Hmm… All the sightings happened while people were traveling between cities… Should we head out to the road…?”
“Don’t be stupid. That would just make us easier targets.”
“But… we’ve been searching like this and it hasn’t shown up at all…”
I looked up into the trees, but there wasn’t even an ant, let alone an unidentified creature.
『You have to look at the ground to see ants, you idiot…』
Rustle—
Suddenly, the sound of leaves rustling reached us.
“…!”
“…!”
Lev and I immediately went on high alert.
[Get out of here…]
“I hear it! I hear it!”
“Who are you? Reveal yourself!”
At the same time, an unidentifiable voice echoed through the trees.
[Get out… This is your final warning…]
“Wait! Say something! What are you?!”
“Duck!”
Lev grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me down. At the same moment, something flew from above the trees.
“Whoa!”
“…It doesn’t seem like it was trying to kill us.”
Stuck in the ground in front of us was what looked like a wooden arrow.
“An arrow…?”
“So that’s what it meant by ‘shooting’…”
Lev reached out and pulled the arrow from the ground to examine it.
“Hmm…”
“Well? Do you know what it is?”
“This is…”
“This is…?”
“…I have no idea.”
“…”
Yeah… of course. She has her airheaded moments too…
“Then… should we leave?”
“What? That’s ridiculous.”
“But… if the next one is actually meant to kill us…”
“You can dodge it. You dodge everything anyway.”
Well, I do have the Emergency Dodge Maneuver…
“You… have it too!”
But being able to dodge and being scared are two different things. I quickly made up an excuse.
“My recovery ability is exceptional, so I’ll be fine.”
“R-right…”
That was true. The wounds she’d received fighting the bandit boss had already healed completely.
In the end, my plan to retreat was brutally shot down.
“There’s a high chance it can hear everything we’re saying. The guild information said it moves through the treetops, and the arrow definitely came from above…”
“Yeah…”
“So…”
Suddenly, Lev grabbed my arm and started running at full speed.
“Whoa! What the hell?!”
“I checked the map beforehand. We’re running to a clearing without any trees!”
Whoosh—!
As if it really had been listening to our conversation, the moment we started running, the sound of arrows slicing through the air followed us.
“Are you insane!!!!!”
“Run faster!”
“I’m not as fast as you!!!”
The arrows kept coming intermittently, but we never stopped running.
“When are we getting there?!”
“Soon!”
Before long, the entrance to the clearing came into view as the light grew brighter.
“Huff… huff…”
“Not yet! We’re going to the center of the clearing!”
We moved as far as possible into the middle of the treeless clearing and stayed on guard.
“The arrows… seem to have stopped.”
“Huff… Why do we always end up running…”
No more arrows flew, and the voice had gone silent.
“…If we go back in, we’ll probably get another barrage.”
“But… the sun’s already setting…?”
“We’ll have to camp. Let’s get ready.”
“Camping…”
It had been a while since we last lit a campfire and pulled out our sleeping bags.
“I wondered why you insisted on bringing these…”
“Here, some dried jerky.”
“Thanks…”
Rustle—
While we were filling our starving stomachs, another rustling sound came from the forest.
“…”
Lev and I naturally stood up and focused on the direction the sound was coming from.
Rustle— Rustle—
Unlike before, it didn’t seem to be trying to hide its position. The continuous rustling grew closer.
Rustle— Rustle— Rustle—
The sound grew louder and louder. Our tension reached its peak.
Finally, the outline of a shape began to appear.
It was roughly human-sized, but clearly not human. Multiple legs were moving. A slender torso had two arms attached, but they weren’t human arms—they were blunt and thick.
“That’s…”
The creature came even closer, and I instantly recognized what it was.
It fully emerged from the forest, stepped into the clearing with its front legs, and shouted loudly.
“Zeratul!!!!!!”
“…A praying mantis?”
A giant praying mantis the size of a human stared at us.